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loyal_faolan
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Post Gardening
on: November 05, 2007 12:35
I looked through the search, but I couldn't find any topics (that I could get into) on gardening. Are there any fellow gardeners out there? I just planted peppermint, and I'm planning on doing more gardening after we move next year, but I wanted to see if anyone had any tips on growing mint.
nightfairy
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Post RE: Gardening
on: November 05, 2007 01:57
We used to have mint before we had to turn the whole garden upside down last year...and it grew like weeds
It seemed to need no care at all and just kept on procreating happily. I think I even saw a few plants in one of the remote corners this year, so I think it's already making its way back into the flowerbeds.

Peppermint is a great thing to have in the garden - partly because it is such a low-maintenance addition, but mostly because it's such a useful herb as well. Apart from making a great herbal tea and dessert seasoning, a bunch of freshly cut stems in a vase will wonderfully and completely naturally scent a whole room. Same goes for lemon balm, by the way, which is a hardy and low-maintenance perennial.

Oh I do love herbs...great thread idea, loyal_faolan! Only thing I have had no luck with, yet, is Parsley. I recently heard that it doesn't like the proximity of chives, which may have been the problem.
Any ideas on that?

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nightfairy
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Post RE: Gardening
on: November 06, 2007 12:35
(I'm growing the mint in a pot, so it won't take over. And it's peppermint, so my migraines will be happy. I like spearmint more, but they only had peppermint.)
I like the idea of potted mint taking over, though, it sounds funny!
I found that, while the essential oils of peppermint and spearmint have completely different scents, the peppermint plant smells a lot more like the well-known chewing gum. So I think you really have something to look forward to!

Hmmm, I have never thought about the pH thing....I might have to get me some of those indicator paper thingies. As for the location, well, it was in a fairly sunny place, next to chives, sage, marjoram and not far from the tomatoes.
Watering was rather a strange problem this year as we had an incredibly wet summer...the tomatoes didn't like that at all. But well, that's how it works...I've had years when I didn't know what to do with all the tomatoes, too, in the past.

May I ask, loyal_faolan, in what kind of area/climate you live? I'm in central Europe, so we get most varieties of weather here, but rarely to the extremes.

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awelyn418
Prancing Pony Moderator, Realm Head of Lórien & Grandmother who loves Tolkien
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Post RE: Gardening
on: November 06, 2007 08:31
The realm of Lorien has a section on gardening. I don't know if you belong to a realm but we would love to have you. We would love to discuss this topic. I am a Lorien realm member . Check it out and see what you think.
awelyn

[Edited on 6/11/2007 by awelyn418]
nightfairy
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Post RE: Gardening
on: November 06, 2007 01:10
Thank you so much for that link, it's just great! I really need to get a bit more organised in my gardening...it's only my second year with a 'real' garden of my own, so there's so much I'm absolutely clueless about.

Your description of the weather and the people's reaction to it sounds just like it is over here! Some things seem to be the same wherever you go.

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nightfairy
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Post RE: Gardening
on: November 06, 2007 02:34
...if I hear bad things about Americans when I go over to visit Europe. (I don't know if that's how stuff is over there, but that's what everyone says over here. That Europeans hate us and stuff and we should pretend to be Canadian.)
Don't you worry about that too much - people making such rash judgements can't really be right, ever, no matter what!

While it is undeniable that there has been a kind of, well, rift in the general relations since that whole 'old Europe' thing, I don't think people really generalise it that much. It is a bit of a media problem, as usual. Whenever changes are made to the health care system, the US gets hauled out as a bad example by those who are against the changes. We see programmes on violence issues and bad education in public schools, so whenever something bad happens in a school here (we hardly have any private schools here, so the difference is unknown to most people) the media are quick to talk about 'american conditions'. And then there's those stories about certain religious groups, but I'd better not get into that now and here, as well as the Iraq issue.

Point is, no one in their right mind would heap all that onto you as a person should they meet you on a holiday over here! I've had (and still have) the luck of being able to travel a lot, and whenever you go someplace popular, you'll meet all the stereotypes. When we visited Neuschwanstein for example, you could see them all, the smiling Japanese with their constantly clicking cameras, the sort-of-loud Americans with no idea about history and the fat, ugly Germans with their gruesome lack of fashion sense But you'll also, always see others as well, nice, considerate people coming from all over the world. I remember queuing up before the gates of Neuschwanstein and being chatted up by a middle-aged American guy with a pudge and a cowboy hat (and how stereotype is that was what I thought) and after a few minutes of conversation I found out that - a.) yes, he had no idea about history or architcture BUT - b.) that he was a really, really nice guy who was totally in awe about the castle just from looking at it. That was my lesson in 'never judge a book by its cover'.

And now I've gone and misused this lovely gardening thread and taken it way off topic. *blushes in shame* If you'd like to continue on that, loyal, feel free to pm me!

So, back to gardening:
I'll definitely look more closely into that site! I often wonder about when exactly to do this and how to do that...I have a rosemary bush that has gotten a bit out of control over the years (it's one of the plants that have been here before I inherited the house), so I guess it really needs to be cut back a bit, but I haven't dared to do that, yet, because I never knew when to do it, and how far to cut wíthout doing damage.

I used to help my Mom in the garden now and then, too, but I had a hard time remembering all the information, as I didn't think the garden would be mine to care for so quickly. That, to come back to what I said earlier, was my lesson in 'better pay attention while you have the possibility'.

hugs
and thanks for reading all this...
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