Gardening Thread- Show me your gardens!

Really? I am putting 4 hibiscus plants in this weekend., wife likes the flowers. Do you collect fully opened petals? Sun dry?

I have a lot of Sitka roses planted. They thrive in GA. Rose hips (fruit) make good tea and jam (have to take seeds out for the jam). Coincidentally, they keep things away from the areas I do not want trespassers on. LOTS of thorns!

 

Air rifle will work, even if you are in subdivision.
Then make squirrel dumplings.

 

I'll ask my wife. I think we are up to 15 hibiscus bushes. My wife and her friend are starting a tea house and are trying to be really self sufficient with their herbal teas. We don't sun dry here too much of a chance for mold because the humidity is above 50% most of the time.

 

Have you seen the solar dehydrators?heres one style.

 

I used a food dehydrator for some of my fruit. Wonder if it will work for flowers.

 

Yes those are neat.

Yes that will work. We have a nice food dehydrator, but we prefer a more passive approach where we can.

We are currently using an herb drying rack.

 

Are coldest months are Jan, Feb, Mar.

Hopefully we get a mild winter.

 

@Barsoom

The hibiscus flesh is collected after the flower blooms. You can kind of see in the first picture that before the flower opens the flesh is really thin. It’s almost 3/16” thick when it’s about to seed. Calyx is what the flesh is called.

 

I've seen them years ago. I was young and thought they were skate board ramps.

One of my friends told me what they were for, after he laughed at me.

If a family member didn't have one he would of thought the same as me.

 

I didn't realize Hibiscus was used for so many applications. I had to do a Google search.

I blame the lack of knowledge on city living.

 

Thank you! Going to try it.
My favorite tea is Red (hongcha) tea with rose or Lavender. Will try it with Hibiscus.

 

Instead of running a heater you can just plant cold hardy plants. Lettuce can handle a lot of cold. Spinach and kale can tolerate almost any cold. This book

$21 Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, 2nd Edition

https://www.amazon.com/Four-Season-Harvest-Organic-Vegetables-Garden/dp/1890132276 is very helpful for winter gardening.

 

The public greenhouse tried planting cold weather plants with less than desirable results. All the see through panel was design with insulated, double panel, see through panel. (Sounds weird) During subzero temps the greenhouse barely gets above freezing. With the heater going, It now stays about 70 degrees all winter. I helped with the design of the greenhouse for the heat issues. The solar panels was a big help with the heating bills.

 

Thats awesome!

 

I have spinach, kale, and lettuce in my greenhouse all winter. The lettuce gradually gets knocked back, but the others do fine. It gets as cold as -20F INSIDE my greenhouse.

 

How does it survive?

 

My inputs were used more than what I thought. But, in the end I got to see my ideas at work, and working as I hope it will.

 

I wondered the same. I Google green leaf produce, most can withstand 20 degrees and above.

Most be something in the soil.

 

In this area I heard green leaf vegetation dies at 40 degrees or below. Some reason the vegetation doesn't withstand the cold.

 

is that a 60-65 day sweet corn then? It looks to be nearly mature.