Whatcha growing? 2026 Gardening Thread

[Sidco_Cat]

My garden has been abandoned for the last few years and it is time to bring it back to life. Yesterday I got my load of mushroom compost/bed mix and another 5 yards of bark for my paths. I am debating about how to handle the beds which have compacted/settled and gotten a nice bed of grass growing in them. My thought is to flip all the sod in place and add about 8 inches of new soil. I have the beds covered with card board to keep the grass from taking off.

I am a zone 7-8 at 2500’ elevation. We just started having 70-80* days here after a really wet winter. It looks like we are skipping spring and going straight to summer but we could also get a hard frost or even more snow. Mountains are weird.

If this is the beginning of spring we could have an amazing growing season this year. It might be worth putting out some early starts just to try to catch the wave early. Are you a gambler or do you wait until after your last average frost to put out things like tomatoes?

I was hoping to get in some spring greens but if it is going to be in the mid-eighties, they might not like it.

How’s your patch?

[Autumn_Ridge_Hemp]

Tomatoes, peppers, rhubarb, flowers, and greens.

This year I made an insulated little shack for my plants to hide in on freezing nights. It was 15 here just a few days ago, 86 tomorrow. I’m also trying to make all my tables into flood tables to make watering easier.

[Sidco_Cat]

outstanding!!

[Lrus007]

just planted carrots 4 days ago. my garlic is up from my xmas planting.

parsley made the winter and is growing well. chives in with it are going

now also.

then got some artichoke seedlings up. 1 cabbage and 2 tobacco up. basking under 1k MH.

got melons and onion seeds just planted indoors. then some borage and carnations.

have my potato’s chitting in window. that’s it i think so far.

[SubstituteCreature]

No pics yet but just cleaned out the back yard. Gonna plant vines on the edges of my deck to run up lines like at a vineyard for some natural cover from the neighbors. Not sure how that’ll work out but i’m excited to see. Waiting til there’s more light to bring plants out so I don’t flower them immediately but it’s gonna be stuffed back there this year.

[Killa12345]

@Lrus007

parsley made the winter and is growing well.

That’s like the opposite here. Winter is when we grow these massive parsley bushes then in the summer they typically are too big to move by that time; they get waterlogged and eventually die around sept.

We usually replant around October and 2x - 3.50$ plants usually last the whole year for our entire neighborhood. Most of the neighbors grab fresh herbs off our porch.

[Sidco_Cat]

Have you tried Morning Glory vines?

[Sidco_Cat]

Very nice. What’s your zone? I love parsley.

[SubstituteCreature]

No I haven’t but I’ll look into them, pretty much trying to make a classy way to keep prying eyes off of my backyard

[Autumn_Ridge_Hemp]

My strongest growing vines last year were red malabar, sometimes called malabar spinach, and also bitter melon. When it’s warm, they grow like crazy.

[Sidco_Cat]

Do you use your herbs in your sauce?

[Sidco_Cat]

One small bed ungrassed and resoiled.

[TheGratefulPhil]

Zone 7A/B crossover region.

so far, I’ve planted a few annual flowers and some cover crops (rye, daikon, clover mainly).

as far as forthcoming crops:

Veggie Wise:

Three Sisters (corn, beans, squash)

Existing Asaparagus Patch

Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Peppers, Lettuce (which always sucks for some reason), carrots, potatoes, onions and garlic

fruits:

BlackBerry (Arapho), Figs, Elderberry, Service Berry, Strawberry, grape (something from my uncle in the Middle East), mulberry (tree is already there just gotta pick em)

herbs:

Cannabis, tarragon, rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano, lavender, sage

Flowers:

petunia, marigolds, nasturtiums, milkweed, sunflower, bee balm, many others

Damn, I kinda love gardening lol

[Killa12345]

@Sidco_Cat

Do you use your herbs in your sauce?

Yes… we constantly use basil for our italian stuff, my kid loves making fresh pesto. We use the parsley for tons and cilantro. We grow these massive herb bushes in 45 gal buckets and the neighbors all take from them. There isnt many days were someone isnt taking a few cuts off the plants. Our backyard is open and on the sidewalk for the pool and tennis courts so everyone practically walks by our backyard in the neighborhood.

We cant use them all. Better to share and know all your neighbors. We use to grow tomatoes but the lawn people kept stealing them…. its one thing when you have a supermarkets worth of herbs, but when all the landscapers steal your tomatoes….. it gets old. last year was the last year growing veggies

[DapperDabMan]

Legitimately suggested this to him last year

[Autumn_Ridge_Hemp]

I’ve got all the tomato plants you might want if you change your mind,: microdwarfs, dwarfs, bushy determinates. Most of them are cherry tomatoes, which are too much work to steal.

[Sidco_Cat]

Pictures! Do you collect your marigold seeds? We could tradesies.

[Lrus007]

8b i am in nw washington state

[Doodlenoodl]

@Sidco_Cat

Yesterday I got my load of mushroom compost

I am also a huge fan of the mushroom Compost. Affordable and hot as anything for nitrogen put it in early let it break down. We are doing a yard of mushroom compost per trench this year

[Sidco_Cat]

Two of Four are completely dug out, gopher barrier laid and old soil and thatch layer worked back in. Will top with about 6” of mushroom compost/garden blend soil.

These beds went 9 years no till. I regret not putting in the wire mesh when we built them. The soil layers were so beautiful to dig through. There’s ample mycelium and lots of worms. I hate to disturb the beds but it was necessary.