Stepping on @LallyLuckFarm’s toes because I like these posts

It’s been a frigid and gusty week here in New England, I needed two pairs of gloves for my bike ride to work yesterday! Just a couple of kale plants hanging on in my garden outside, but inside my potted camellia sinensis recently flowered for the first time! I’m currently battling a spider mite infestation and it did not enjoy lack of watering while I was away for Thanksgiving, but hopefully it’ll bounce back in the spring.

What’s growing on for you all? I hope all you southern hemisphere folks are enjoying the peak of the season!

  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    7·
    3 days ago

    Are you actually planning to grow tea with your camellia or just as decoration?

    As for me: Hoping my Yuzu survives the weather

    Edit: And waiting for warmer weather so I can stop using the bus and ride my bike again (I refuse to wear a big winter jacket and sweat during my way back home because it’s too damn hot)

    • Swallowtail@beehaw.org
      2·
      3 days ago

      Have you eaten any fruit off your yuzu yet? It’s about the only edible citrus I can grow outdoors in my area. I’ve thought about giving it a shot, but I’m also not psyched about the idea of spending years growing a tree just to realize I don’t like the fruit! I used to live in Japan, really should have tried it while I was there. Much harder to find in America I think.

    • xylem@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      Tea is the goal! It’s been growing from seed since February of 2023. I’ve made all of one cup of tea so far, from some prunings last spring. It was nice (:

      I don’t expect to be able to harvest in any sort of quantity for a couple years yet, so for now I guess it’s mostly decorative. The flowers were pretty!

      • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        3·
        3 days ago

        Sounds neat.
        During my visit in Sri Lanka I plucked and dried some leaves. Sadly itbwas only 1g. Tasted good though.
        Wish you best of luck and a good tea ;)

  • LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org
    4·
    3 days ago

    I’ve been preoccupied growing and training up a Juniper (our four month old), but I’ve also got a closet full of Cuban Oregano (Plectranthus). Every time they get tall enough to touch the grow lights I take cuttings to make more. Like Chris, I’m freezing my butt off.

    I’m currently soliciting donations for our town’s seed library, and will be getting together with folks in a few weeks to organize and package all the donations. The library also built a greenhouse with a grant this past year, so we’ll be planning some crops and their rotations in there and in the ADA raised beds we built last year.

    There are a ton of seeds we collected from our cultivated plants and ones we foraged during the fall, those will be started soon to be ready for spring plantings and for our library’s annual plant sale fundraiser.

    • taiidan@slrpnk.net
      3·
      2 days ago

      So great that your library is doing so much. In our town we are also growing the seed library and hopefully see a lot of the seeds coming in from plants grown from seed.