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High Desert Gardening

User
13 years ago

Ok, you folks fro out in the midwest to western part of the US. I stumbled across a really interesting RSS feed/blog or whatever you wish to call it.

They are container growing veggies and small fruits. Included in this particular October 2010 entry is mention of the difficult encountered growing Okinawan sweet potatos and ginger....real ginger.

I put the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: High Desert Gardening

Comments (7)

  • flgargoyle
    13 years ago

    I of course can't relate to 'high desert' gardening, but it was interesting about the sweet potatoes. I planted 3 vines in the ground, and after a whole summer of growth, got 1-1/2 small potatoes :( You would think FL would be a gardener's mecca, but it's actually tough- the soil is pure alkaline sand, and it's too hot for many things. Meanwhile, my bananas, which nobody even looks at, are busy with another bunch of bananas. The last time yielded 80 small bananas!

  • User
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Wow, Jay! They say the small bananas are mostly seed and might not taste very well. I have one tough plant called the Orinoco banana, supposed to be hardy/edible in zone 8 where we live, and that is about 12 or more feet tall. This big stalk will be its second year, the age that bananas much reach before bearing fruit. At least, the STALK has to be that old, and if it doesn't freeze back this winter, I might have a lovely bunch of fruits next season.

    From what I understand, our soil is probably just right for taters of all sorts. We have a good bit of clay, which surprised me, because always before my yards were sandy loam, and acid loving plants thrived here--azaleas, camellias, blueberries, and all sorts of tropical stuff.

    When you get to SC you will have to practice a whole different style of gardening. I'm going to do a lot more container gardening, and DH will do his raised beds. Our sweet little neighbor is giving us some of her mature blueberry bushes this winter. DH is ecstatic about that! He regrets leaving his mature fruits up north.

  • flgargoyle
    13 years ago

    I don't know what variety our bananas are- they're about half the size of a regular banana, and are very sweet, but also have an almost citrus tang. They grow all over the place around here. They like rich, acid soil and lots of water. Ours are on the north side of our house, and there are always several inches of rotting leaves on the ground there.

    We have a lot of wild blueberries on our SC property, so I know they will thrive there! I have a friend about 1-1/2 miles away, and he has had very good success with all sorts of veggies, so I have high hopes.

    Last year's bananas- in flower, and after the harvest:


  • User
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    What a beautiful tree and flower it makes. I'm hoping the cold does not stunt my big banana trees this winter. They say it takes a trunk two years to form the flower and fruit.
    Your fruits are awesome.

  • Shades_of_idaho
    13 years ago

    OH WOW I would love to be able to grow a banana tree. It is gorgeous!!! Would never grow here. Going to go read the link. Thanks ML

    We have mixture of soil. We brought in several hundred yards of top soil.I think it was 8 or 10 40 Foot dump loads. Dirt free had to pay for the truck. Still wonderful deal. And it is all spread around now never know there was any hauled in. Lots went into building up the dogs yard.

    So we have lots of gravel soil some clay and lots of good soil out of an alfalfa field.

  • flgargoyle
    13 years ago

    Our bananas wilt in a light frost, and a freeze kills them to the ground. I lost a 'crop' last year when it got down to 28 degrees one night. I have a new batch just starting- hopefully no frost this year!

  • User
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Hmmm, Shades, you talking about truck loads of dirt makes me think about having some hauled in for those blueberries we plan to transplant from our neighbor. The way I look at it, buying MORE DIRT is increasing the REAL ESTATE we own.
    :) Only, no dump trucks. My friendly gardening pal has a little Toyota red pickup truck, and he can load it up and back it into place and only move the dirt ONCE. Just unload it where we want it to go. Our ground is pretty soft and it compacts too easily.

    Can you tell that I'm getting excited about returning to my Alabama garden? My knees are getting better since I started taking those 2 glucosamine condroitin caps each day.