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Beyond the Hollow For anything not relating to Pixie Hollow or Fairies |
Do you do any Gardening? |
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#1
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Do you do any Gardening?
Hi pixies! I'm just wondering if we have some Mainland garden-talents here in our group who would be interested in sharing their gardening projects/stories with us.
Spring is quickly approaching in most parts of the world, so now is the perfect opportunity to pick up some flower bulbs and start ploughing. Do you have any ideas for the season? If you're not that much of a gardener, why not start now? There are many beautiful potted plants in the shops that are easy to take care of and can brighten up any room or doorstep. Or perhaps you have a green thumb and are a true garden-talent at heart? I'd love to hear all about your gardening endeavours! I've never been much of a gardener, spare for a few potted plants. However, a family friend recently came along to help us set up a small garden plot in our backyard. It took us two days to clear out all the previous mess, but now there's fresh new soil, tidy wooden fencing around the edges, and three rows of flowers. We added back to it our red dahlias, calla lilies and daffodils, and brought bunches of marigolds and mixed phloxes. They'll be able to tolerate the winter months (it's not all that cold in our area), so we'll see them again fully blooming next spring. And for the seasons following, we'll have plenty of space for new ideas and different flower combinations. Oh, and the solar lights are sooo pretty when they light up after sunset, they make me smile whenever I come back home late. I also brought a trough for the three small cacti we had growing for a while now (they outgrew their small pots so needed a new home). They're now all sitting on our porch, out in the sun and away from the rain. So that's my quick story. ^^ What about yours?
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#2
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I don't know if I'd consider myself a gardener. My Mom is always saying that I have a green thumb and I'd like to think I do, but there are too many times I've tried to grow something and nothing comes out of it. Sniffle.
However! Not all my gardening endeavors have failed. I've been able to grow an apple tree from a grocery store apple seed, as well as potatoes from old store potatoes. I have this giant pink silk tree in our backyard that I grew from a seed that fell from our neighbor's tree, it seeded itself and I kept watering it until it was a skinny 1 1/2 feet tall branch; that's when my parents told me I have to plant it someplace else (it was in a kind of window box container in our patio). So I uprooted it and place it in the very center of our backyard. I call her my 'Baby', although she's probably three times my height now. She shares a space with my peachy-orange rose bush I got on clearance. This year I'm trying to grow a variety of flowers to put in front of the kitchen window, its window box has been empty since my family has lived in our house (I won't tell you how long) and I want to fix that. I'm also going to plant some mint, I've read that you can make your own mint tea from just a few of its leaves and because its fresh it should taste better than the herbal tea in bags. Finally, my brother told me how to grow scallions from the ones you buy from stores, so I'm trying that out. I also want to see if I can grow a rosebush by putting a rose cutting in a potato, it sounds bizarre but I still want to see if it works.
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#3
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Sapphira, that sounds incredible! To grow a tree from a seed sounds like it would take a lot of time and effort, I think. I enjoyed reading the stories you've shared. I really hope you're gardening ideas will not falter. To be honest I've never really considered it possible to grow plants from supermarket fruit & veggies.
Peachy-orange roses are my favourite. We have a rose bush that blooms every spring. The pesky pests love munching on it, but once we get rid of them, the bush grows bunches and bunches of bright red flowers (very much like Rosetta Red dye in colour, actually). It's very pretty! Ooh, you should definitely add some mint to your garden! We have mint and lemon balm growing behind the house, the scent is so soothing and you'll love making tea with it. You don't even need to add anything else, just brewing some mint leaves in a teapot produces a delicious flavour.
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#4
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I have been trying to rid my garden of a tough deep rooted weed. I have to use an actual shovel!
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signature by the talented _Stormy_ (I am the other Stormy!) |
#5
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I know how that feels, Stormy. We had so much trouble with one root that simply did not want to go. The plant dug its roots underneath the cemented road as well so we couldn't tell from which side we should work on it. It took us over an hour of fiddling with the shovel, but that finishing *rrriiip* noise we heard when it finally came out was so satisfying.
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#6
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Here in a day or two I will finally have my little garden.
All the space we have is our balcony and I have to grow it all in containers. It will be an explosion of colors! Will post my little garden pictures soonish. |
#7
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Hi there Frozenthorn! Welcome back!
I do rather a lot of gardening. Which is interesting, because I don't usually consider myself as a gardener. My family has a garden that we try to grow a fair amount of different fruits and vegetables in, and I help out with that quite a bit. It kind of ends up being me or my dad kind of heading it up, but it is technically family thing. And I have helped my mom with some landscaping and some of the decorative plants as well. So, why wasn't my main fairy a garden talent?
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#8
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I found myself feeling the same way, Primrose; why wasn't my main fairy a garden talent? I didn't even make a garden talent until the sparrow men came out, and he was my fourth fairy. It's especially strange considering I love-love-love flowers and gardens - the stories I write always have a garden of some sort.
Anyway, Update! I recently found out that my apple tree is growing apples! Finally! After some eight years or more! Okay, I'll stop with the exclamation points, it's just I'm so excited. I first planted the seeds from a store-bought apple as an experiment. I had hoped it would eventually grow apples as I don't really like that the store-bought ones are coated in wax to give it that 'shine'. But then I learned that though apple trees may grow from store apples, they very rarely grow actual apples. I was disappointed but still loved my apple tree. About three or four years ago, the tree finally got some blossoms, pretty light pink flowers that smelled really nice. But, alas, the blossoms were few and no apples came of them. But this year there were more blossoms and after the flowers fell I noticed some weird elongated 'things' where the flowers were. I wasn't sure of them and I didn't want to get too excited if it ended up being a false alarm, so I watched and waited. Now those elongated fruit are getting bigger and rounder. This is how I feel right now: I can't wait to see what color of apple I get: red, yellow, green...I don't care. I'm not a fan of the red delicious, but I'll eat them just because I grew them all by myself.
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#9
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Thanks for the welcome back, Primrosesweet! Just been super busy doing too much hobbies and home-related things. Life just keeps on happening, ha! I would love to have a yard though. Maybe in the future if we ever move to another living space I will put my foot down and put in my two cents and say I want something of a back-yard so that I can have a huge garden area.
That's such an amazing story about your apple tree, Sapphira. I hope you have all the apples you can! To grow and take care of a tree over the last eight years! Such love, attention, and care! I'm glad to hear of it! Congratulations on all your well-earned efforts! We have sort of an apple tree growing below our balcony. It made one teeny tiny red apple last year. This spring it has more flowers, so maybe by chance it might make a few teeny tiny apples. It also has a friend/ neighbor tree that is young, called a mimosa tree. They can grow huge. They have delightful fluffy pink flowers that have such a sweet scent, it's other-worldly and dreamy! But for now this young mimosa tree is not much more than just a tall single ten feet tall sapling. I won't expect it to have the fluffy pink flowers for several more years though. My Flower garden so far. Front left long container is Petunias. Rear red container is Cineraria (they smell amazing!). Rear right container are more Petunias. And front right are plain Marigolds. Some of which had already gone to seed, so I re-planted some of the new Marigold seeds and saved some in a paper envelope for later planting. And the funny looking metal sculpture is named, Well-dee, ha ha. Something my Husband said needed to live out on the balcony. Below Well-dee are a few interesting rocks we have found or collected, some even have local/ natural quartz on them, so beautiful in the afternoon . And on the far left of the table is a little wooden turtle. I had also noticed that the Maple tree that's been growing in the area below us had dropped its seeds and caught a ride on a breeze and came up on our balcony. So I took several of the Maple seeds and stuck them in the dirt of the containers. And as of now I seen a couple of baby Maple trees starting to grow. Baby trees are so darn cute! If they can grow strong enough, we will do our best to take care of the new sprouts, and maybe next spring we can plant some saplings somewhere. |
#10
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Thank you for sharing all your photos, Frozenthorn! Well-dee made me giggle, and the photo with one of your kitty cats made me melt from its adorableness! ♥
Congratulations, Sapphira! I agree, such dedication and patience deserves a few bright new apples. Perhaps they will make a superb apple pie? @Primrose: That sounds wonderful! I've always wished we'd have a family garden of sorts out in our backyard, but my parents wouldn't have time for it at all. I really enjoyed helping out my grandparents years ago with their gardening at their summer bach back in Russia. It would reward us with delicious berries and vegetables almost every day during summer, mmm! From strawberries to cucumbers and even poppy seeds, I'm pretty sure they had absolutely everything growing there. ==== Although it's Autumn at the moment, the weather surprisingly hasn't been all that cold yet. Our Marigolds are in full bloom, I love their bright yellow, orange and red colors, so perfect for the season. The Calla lilies are slowly but surely unravelling their new leaves, and a few of the other flowers are meekly peeking out as well. I love walking past the plot to suddenly find that a new flower has opened, each time in a new color. So far there has been blue, yellow and pink, I wonder what the next color will be?
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#11
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Gardening
Well I have some calla lilies, some scabiosa (for the butterflies) a couple of Butterfly bushes, and many many day lilies. Day lilies are wonderful because they are drought tolerant and we have had a long drought.
I have to have my butterfly plants though because I love to feed them in my garden. I also have a hummingbird feeder close to my back sliding door. Oh and I must not forget, I have bird feeders in the front and back yard and a squirrel feeder in my back yard.
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My Fairies: Quicksilver Cloudshimmer Twilight Diamondshimmer Topaz Nightwhisper Arrival Date - January 24, 2007 |
#12
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I don't consider myself a gardener, nor do I consider myself a Garden-Talent, but we did plant a few potted plants this Spring!
We planted a few different cacti, a small Lime tree (It's not really a tree yet, not really a sapling... I guess it's a teenage tree? ) a small rose bush, multiple veggies, and a few others. We planted the tree in a big pot until it gets a little bigger, so it won't get too flooded or broken by the winds. We also planted flower seeds, including Daisies (Heh... Couldn't help myself. ), Marigolds, Morning Glories, and a few others I can't seem to currently remember. They grew into small saplings, but they haven't blossomed, and I'm afraid they're not going to since they've pretty much fallen over. They haven't wilted yet, though, so I still have hope! Even though I'm a known 'germaphobe' (I'm working on getting over it; it's just a really, really slow process...) I had tons of fun getting my hands dirty! Chloe (from the Pixie Hollow Games) would be proud of me! |
#13
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@Peweli: That all sounds wonderful, and well done on thinking about the little critters who come on over to visit.
@Daisy: Wow you planted such a lovely variety of plants, especially considering that you don't think of yourself as a garden-talent. I think Rosetta will totally understand where you're coming from with all that "working with dirt" business. I myself always stay away from spiders - as soon as I see one crawling about, I'm gone, lol!
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#14
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My apples went from things that looked like plums, to green spheres with a blush of pink, then yellow, and NOW look at 'em!
Aren't they beautiful?
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#15
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That photograph is beautiful, Sapphira! My oh my, your apples are picture-perfect, I'm so happy that all of your work has paid off.
We've had some daffodils growing during this last month of winter, and our mixed phloxes have been in bloom ever since autumn (sheesh, everything grows almost all year round here in NZ). Each bunch of phloxes is in a different color, and I can't decide which one I like the most. Perhaps I'll go out tomorrow after work and take some photos to share. Our newest cactus unfortunately didn't survive, but the other two have grown slightly. It was a bit too cold for them out on the porch, so they are sitting on my window sill - my room is the sunniest in the house so I'm sure they like it here.
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