Around the "Gardening/Planting" Campfire

Tina, how did your garden fare last year? I was able to get a plot in Livermore's community garden this year, so I would like to hear about yours. Any words of wisdom?

Sorry, I haven't been on in quite a while. i giess Facebook would be easier to get me then here.

my plot did OK in that it was fine for a beginner. I was happy with what I grew but I had a lot of gophers and lost half my stuff. So I put in 3 1/2 wine barrels in during the summer and grew the stuff that i really wanted to make sure did not get eaten, skullcap, vervain mugwort thyme. and it fared fine but needs this year to really take off.

I also planted 2 echinacea plants and 2 astragalas and 1 elecampane in gopher root cages. basiicaly a mesh bucket I planted in the earth so it protects the roots over the next few years until i harvest them.

So now to deal with the gopher issue I'm putting in 2 large beds 4x4 each. but I'm digging them deeper in the gound like 12 inches and the beds will sit about 8 inches above ground. I wanted a deep bed to handle the root plants. I lined the bottom with gopher cage or chicken wire cage.

I'll also be adding a few more wine barrels or large round metal bathing tubs to plant other stuff. I'll set these on a few bricks so they drain well.

My white sage, mugwort, helichrysum and goldenrod all survived in the ground but that may have just been a fluke.

the stuff to watch. mugwort spreads through shoots under the earth and come up somewhere else sometimes 12 inches away. so that may be something you grow in a container. Golden rod can do the same. my 3 pants that are in a 1 foot square radios are now at about 2 foot radios. I'm thinking on digging it up and putting it in a large container as I don't need that much golden rod.

still have to get my seeds started and I'm still not sure what I want to grow this year. I'm thinking on odering live plants from Horizan herbs, Riccho chechs site.

Good luck . \

Let me know how it goes