Welcome, new members!

If you just joined, or are thinking of joining our community, welcome in!

Our hope is that this can be a place where all gardeners feel welcome. Whether you're just starting out growing or have been cultivating for a lifetime, we're here to share knowledge, answer each other's gardening questions, provide support, and have some fun playing in the dirt.

Feel free to introduce yourself here and let us know a little about you.

We're glad you're here!

Hello everyone, I'm Joanna, and I love growing dahlias (and some herbs and veggies) in my Zone 7b garden in Maryland! I'm hoping to meet new gardener friends online and am not especially fond of social media at the moment so here I am.

Hi Joanna, so nice that you're here! 😊 I used to live in NJ in Zone 7a, so I'm familiar with the mid-Atlantic climate. Admittedly, though, I've never grown a dahlia. *GASP*! Maybe I ought to 🤔

Geoffrey

I did grow a couple Dahlia last year, they are nice

I'm in Ohio, we have to dig those in fall, I put the roots in the fridge, they seem happy in there, not rotting or moldy

I'm about bonsai fruit trees, flowers, strawberries, and Cane Fruits, and for some reason I don't understand Artichokes

Oh they like that vernalization? Do you put them in a bag in the fridge so they don't dry out?

Yum, strawberries are my favorite! We've been having really good success with artichokes here in Arizona, they seem to like the hot, dry climate and the sandy soil for drainage? Still figuring them out.

the roots in the fridge, I'm putting in paper lunch sacks, then in grocery bags or ziplocks, I set them on top of the fridge overnight first to dry, if they're not dry they tend to rot or mold, so they need to be dry, so you have to kind of dry, I checked them a while back, they seem very happy

Glad they're doing well! It sounds very similar to when I vernalize hardneck garlic in the fridge in case the winter is not cold enough. Make sure the cloves are dry, wrap in paper towel, and then inside a plastic bag. I always worry about mold, but it hasn't happened yet!

Hi, I'm in Zone 9a (Bristol, UK). I'm a wildlife/beneficial insect-friendly veg gardener, & I'm gradually turning one of my allotment plots into a micro food forest. All my excess crops go to the local food bank.

Nice to meet you, MuckAndGrass! I'm also in zone 9A down in Arizona in the US. I'm honestly shocked that there is zone 9A in Bristol! 🤯

Love the wildlife gardening, and I've turned a couple plots at my community garden into a little food forest too 😊

Very cool to have you in the community! 🌱

hi everyone! i’m pretty brand new to gardening and live in a city, so it’s just my little table of potted plants rescued from the office where i work, i don’t have a yard, but so far i’ve really been enjoying taking care of them, and i’d like to get better at it, so i am looking forward to learning lots!

Hey @littlefaith! 👋 Glad to hear you're having fun with your plants, I started in a city with a few potted plants too 🌱😊

Now a decade later I'm trying to restore ecosystems and regenerate deserts and help gardeners connect - it got a little out of hand 😂

so cool to think about the little plants that got me started and how you might be at the beginning of your own awesome journey too!

Let us know what questions you have along the way and how you're getting on, I want this to be a really supportive place

Hello everyone, I'm Bonnie and I garden in zone 9b in Arizona. I've grown perennial flowers for a very long time, and am in my second year of veggie + herb gardening. I usually learn everything five minutes before I need it. Not true all the time, but some days are like that, like last year when it was blisteringly hot and I suddenly had to learn about shade cloth. My tomatoes and peppers looked grateful by perking back up. I had never had a home-grown tomato before and I was instantly in love. I practice (to use the word lightly) raised bed gardening. I've been enjoying it so much I just added two 8' x 4' beds. I hope to have canteloupe and watermelon this year, and would like to try Roselle Hibiscus for tea. I am very glad to have found this website and look forward to chatting with you all!

Hey @Bonnie, love your photo! 🌼 I'm in AZ too and have seen the wonders of shade cloth first-hand on those sweltering summer days 😂 I will say that while my tomatoes and other warm season veggies love the extended season with shade cloth, my 40% shade turned out to be too much for watermelon, okra, and cowpeas in the summer. Maybe 10% shade cloth would be good for them, or growing out in the open 🤔 I still haven't found the trick for melons yet, but as long as we never stop experimenting we can figure out anything in the garden 😃🌱 Happy that you're here in the community figuring it all out with the rest of us!!

Hello My name is David , I have a large permaculture themed garden at La Chateau de la Ravardiere , Anjou France . I love fruit trees and experiments with new veggies

Hello I'm Brent, I live in Portland on the border between 8b and 9a. I have a Japanese-style garden in the back with mostly PNW native plants, a vegetable garden with raised beds in front, and this year I'm excited to begin a new perennial border by the kitchen door with an area I recently reclaimed from an out-of-control patch of arrow bamboo planted by the neighbor decades ago. Here's a pic of my Japanese woodland garden.

Hello to all the new people here! Just dropping in to get to know this forum. I'm not much of a social media person and I'll probably embarrass myself, but what is the @ in @Bonnie? 😳

It's usually called like a "mention", so @Bonnie means I'm directing my comment at your username.

What it's supposed to do is send a notification to the recipient saying "hey somebody mentioned you in this thread" but I haven't built that functionality yet 😅 it's on my to-do list!