that company is all kinds of awesome! we have always had success growing from their seeds and, as you point out, their selection of Asian greens and veggies is superior! (love the wasabi arugula!)
they alawys offer free shipping and send a packet of seeds as a freebie “thank you” gift.
Baker Creek is our go-to seed outfit, you betcha!
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Wow! Great to hear!
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Enduring frigid temps here in Maine, very much appreciating the luxury of fresh herbs from my little aero garden.
That’s 2 types of basil, thyme, parsley, mint and dill.
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That’s my go to seed catalog as well. Good people to deal with.
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They have so many interesting seeds!
I like these for seeds of non-food stuff: https://www.prairiemoon.com/seeds/
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I like to take avocado stones and sprout them. I do the technique of partially submerging in water, but inevitably the water evaporates and the stone dries out.
Today I took some foam that was used to pack electronics and made little floats. This way I can start multiple stones in a large bowl, and as the water level changes the stones will rise and fall but stay properly sumerged.
I trimmed a couple into sailboat shapes, because why not.
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All the points for ingenuity!
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That’s a thing??
Desperately googles to see if it’s available in Aus. Hooray!
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it is and it is awesome! has the bitter nuttiness of rocket with a spicy horseradish bite that really punches up a mixed green salad!
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Wasabi arugula? Whaaaa?
Hang on.
OK, order placed. Thanks for the recommendation!!!
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This is this year’s experiment:
This is a fruiting yuccca
Saw it on a youtube channel i follow, Weird Explorer, found seeds and grew it out for a year in pots, planted out today, and we shall see
Link to his channel
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New house, new garden and I’ve been wondering what kind of tree the tallest tree is, the one that shades the frangipanis, had stunning red and orange flowers in late Spring and brought all the Eastern rosellas to the yard. The giant beans gave it away - it’s a Moreton Bay chestnut (not a chestnut), aka a Blackbean because, well, the beans ripen to be black. They’re poisonous when raw but the local Turrbal people ate them after chopping the beans (think avocado stone-size) into small pieces, roasting them, soaking them in water for several days and then pounding them into flour.
Today was my first proper day in the garden and all I really have to do is not screw things up.
Everything is crazy-lush - the next big decision is what kind of fruit tree to plant in the fruit-tree shaped hole.
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Wow, this all looks lovely!
More for the food thread, but this part:
This stuff always gives me so much optimism about humanity. I mean, nobody told them what to do with that plant, but they figured it out and passed the knowledge down, without even a written language at first. Thinking of how much we’ve figured out makes me slightly less despondent about the present and future.
But back on point, congrats on your new garden! Can’t wait to see what fills the fruit tree sized hole!
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Yes! I mean, it’s amazing enough that we (collectively) learned what’s edible straight off the tree or from the ground let alone the foodstuffs that need complicated processing like nixtamalization or the treatment of cassava. Desperation might explain some but others like nixtamalization don’t kill you if you don’t do it - you just get sick over months. How those ones were discovered is even more mind-blowing.
I love how Chinese and Vietnamese mythology takes this collective experimentation and wraps it into the myth of Shennong, the divine farmer who is said to have invented agriculture and tasted everything that grew to determine whether food or poison.
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Yah. Tangentially related, the whole PFAs crisis is depressing as hell, but here in Maine we’re learning a lot about how to deal with the landscape we have now. We’re learning which foods can safely be grown in fields that are already tainted, to name just one. The whole organic farming community has really come together with the scientific community to figure a way out of this mess we had no hand in creating. So while it’s a tragedy we even have to deal with this, it’s heartening to again see humans come together and figure shit out.
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The Camelias are blooming, again. Three years with this bush, and I have no idea what it’s cycle is. But it’s gorgeous. There’s some indication that there was a line of them along the property at one time. Right now there are 4 that I’ve uncovered. This one is the happiest of them.
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Huh. We have something in our yard that looks a lot like that, but doesn’t get much taller than about 3ft. The ends of the leaves are needle-sharp.
It’s also nearly impossible to eradicate. I cut a bunch down, dug up as many roots as I could find, covered the 8ftx20ft area with black plastic weighted it down with bricks, and left it covered from Feb - August last year. When I uncovered the area the stuff came right back up. A neighbor told me the only reliable way to kill it (short of constant digging), was to pour diesel fuel all over the area. So, constant digging.
ETA: misspleddings
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Beautiful! That is what my little camellia bush should look like too, but the Xmas deep freeze might have done it in 
The plant nurseries here in Upper Alabama are recommending “wait and see” before pruning or removing freeze damaged shrubs and such. I guess I’ll know in a month or so.
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@FloridaManJefe, thanks again! Everything arrived mint for the chickens, lettuces for the humans.
Also, the Jasmine is blooming. Cause spring is here, I guess?
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nice!
i see they sent you wasabi radish as your freebie. we got that one, too and it is already coming up. we grew it last year and while not a true wasabi horseradish (it is a daikon), it is spicy!
happy gardening!
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