2025 Gardening thread, whatcha growing or doing in the yard

[Criticalt]

My wife grows beets every year and fixes them in a variety of ways, all good!!!! My favorite is what she calls Harvard Beets, Kind of a sweet and sour fixing!!!!
Robin

Cut in quarters, plenty of butter and salt, roasted until tender. They go with any meat dish. They also "can" very good and stay perfect tenderness for years.

 

[S&W Fan]

Not really, they are very easy and not many diseases or pests.
The only thing I can suggest....try Detroit red beets....or something like that. We just call them Detroit beets.
They are sweet and very red. The more redness, the better they are for you. Beets are very good for you.......apparently.

My wife grows beets every year and fixes them in a variety of ways, all good!!!! My favorite is what she calls Harvard Beets, Kind of a sweet and sour fixing!!!!
Robin

I love Beets ! I have a raised bed set up to grow just beets every year. They’re one of the easiest root veggies to grow and the yield is excellent. I like the Detroit Red for their great taste and dark red color. I’ve let a couple of plants go way past typical harvest size to see what happens and we got beets the size of softballs! We cut them into thick slabs about one inch thick and roasted them . Awesome !

 

[Robin]

Yeah, I like them roasted too, with black pepper corns sprinkled on!
Robin

 

[S&W Fan]

Yeah, I like them roasted too, with black pepper corns sprinkled on!
Robin

Try em roasted with fresh ground white pepper corns and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Mmmmm mmm

 

[Criticalt]

Try em roasted with fresh ground white pepper corns and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Mmmmm mmm

Balsamic is the most underrated vinegar.
Seriously one of the best flavors.

 

[Saltwater60]

Cool. I’m excited about the beets. I did an orange variety that is supposed to be super sweet so I will see what happens. My peppers are popping today so that’s great news.

 

[Old Jalopy]

Don't forget good old-fashioned pickled beets and onions.

 

[TEOTWAWKI inc.]

Much respect for all the farmers out there. Hard ass work.

 

[Tisto]

I'm by no means a "green thumb" although the dandellions in my yard appear to thrive, but I have some plans for this spring. The front of my house has a reasonably large flower bed that has 4 rose bushes, each seemingly on deaths doorstep but somehow amazingly still flowering. Well, this year I want to add some life and color to it. I plan on adding a bunch of Foxglove which should do just fine. I also want to plant a few Belladonna and Hemlock. And, if it will grow, I would like some Oleander. Not sure it will grow here though. The poison ivy that is intertwined with my neighbor's hedges grows very well. They have no clue it's there and I giggle to myself every time I see them trimming the bushes.

 

[Saltwater60]

I'm by no means a "green thumb" although the dandellions in my yard appear to thrive, but I have some plans for this spring. The front of my house has a reasonably large flower bed that has 4 rose bushes, each seemingly on deaths doorstep but somehow amazingly still flowering. Well, this year I want to add some life and color to it. I plan on adding a bunch of Foxglove which should do just fine. I also want to plant a few Belladonna and Hemlock. And, if it will grow, I would like some Oleander. Not sure it will grow here though. The poison ivy that is intertwined with my neighbor's hedges grows very well. They have no clue it's there and I giggle to myself every time I see them trimming the bushes.

I’ve done landscaping for years so when I didn’t recognize some of the plants I looked them up and belladonna and Oleander will not live through the winter here. We are technically zone 6 now but I still to zone 5 because I find zone 6 plants thrive about 20% of the time here. Foxglove is nice but not hardy against windy locations and needs to be replanted because it is short lived.
I really like and recommend hydrangeas unless your area gets blasted with sun. Also something that looks similar to belladonna is sweet shrub and they do great here. Something that looks moderately similar to Oleander is some of the Japanese lilacs. Head to Lovocats nursery in the spring because they are great and have a nice selections.
If you have questions reach out.