Gardening thread.

I thought I'd try starting a thread dealing with all things gardening.
I've had a veg garden for the last 15 years or so and learn new things from others every year so I thought it might be useful to have a thread to exchange ideas, tips, and even photos.

A question I have deals with planting potatoes. Last year I planned on planting some potatoes but had a really hard time finding a place to buy potato seeds suitable for planting. I asked around Eastern Market and local nurseries and really didn't come up with anything. Any ideas on where to buy them and tips on planting would be appreciated.

I thought you planted the potato eyes, not seeds. [[But I'm no expert.)

From Wikipedia's Potato article:

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In general, the potatoes themselves are grown from the eyes of another potato and not from seed. Home gardeners often plant a piece of potato with two or three eyes in a hill of mounded soil....

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Where I live, the grocery stores have bins of seed potatoes and onion sets this time of year. You cut them into sections, each with an eye and plant them in loose soil. I've seen potatoes grown in very sandy soil that are huge. The less resistance the better. You can grow them in bins and I've seen them grown in stacks of old tires filled with a loamy type soil mix. I wouldn't want to do that in my backyard, but if I lived in the country and had a bunch of old tires I might try it.

I started about 170 different garden plants over the last two weekends and I'm going mostly with containers this year. I transfered some to a cold frame yesterday. I sure wish I had a small greenhouse.

My chive plant didn't come back this year. :[[ I had one years ago that always came back. The last few I've had haven't. Anyone know why?

Pam, if your chives have been in the same spot for several years, they may have depleted the soils PH levels, this combined with possible over-crowding are often culprits for many onion bulb family types from "coming back" after a few years.... Try replanting a new batch in another spot in your garden, preferably a rich, moist soil.

rjk, nice thread topic! It would be great to see photos from everyone's garden endeavors this summer...

^^ I agree, good topic. I'm up for reading the sagas and advice of wiser gardners than myself [[which is just about everyone). I am moving my very small veggie garden from the terraced bed in my front yard terrace to a hopefully healthier location in the back yard. South-facing front yard has always been delightfully sunny, and we annually added fresh soil to the beds. We've tried multiple remedies over multiple years, but nothing we planted ever quite lived up to expectation. It finally crossed my mind that the gentle slope we'd terraced has a base of creosote-soaked logs [[part of a walkway long since buried). Either that, or the black walnut tree across the driveway has a wider effect than we thought. So I'm relocating the garden spot to an area far from errant poisonous tree roots and old, potentially-toxic lumber. Maybe we'll see a worthwhile vegetable yield this year. Heh, hope springs eternal; if spring would only show up.

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Originally Posted by Redleg81

Pam, if your chives have been in the same spot for several years, they may have depleted the soils PH levels, this combined with possible over-crowding are often culprits for many onion bulb family types from "coming back" after a few years.... Try replanting a new batch in another spot in your garden, preferably a rich, moist soil.

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I guess I should have said they were in a pot outside, not the ground. [[So were the more successful ones I had.)

Got hit pretty hard last night with heavy wind, rain, sleet and snow. I brought everything except my garlic back in from my cold frame. There was a small snow drift against it this morning. The garlic is pretty hardy and likes to start out from a cold point. I started growing garlic again two years ago when I found out that 75% of all garlic in the U.S. comes from China. Can't we do anything here anymore?

It was 82 here for a couple of days last week. The weather report today was bad, with a slight chance of getting lousy. Sure could use a break in the weather.

Did you get your potato problem solved? Locally, you can purchase seed potatoes and most any other thing at Uncle Lukes in Troy. Dale can give you plenty of tips on how to grow them. You can even grow them successfully in a five-gallon bucket.