spiceoflife's Profile
spiceoflife's Interests
Garden Zone: 5-6 based on the new map :-)
Plants in my Garden: grapes - himrod, niagra and venus, rhubarb,, several kinds of tomatoes, pole beans, basil, cardamom, bay laurel, borage, lettuce, Mammoth sunflowers, rosemary (my favorite herb), and clover. Others not in my garden are date palms, dwarf cavendish banana, cherimoya, and I just started some windowbox , herbs: cilantro, parsley, trying some tomatillo and pepino seeds, Also, I'm trying some tree seeds for bonsai.
Favorite Aspect of Gardening: Encouraging life. Is that too corny?
If I'm not in my garden, I can usually be found: working, or spending time with my son.
Occupation: Technical support for a billing software company.
Plants in my Garden: grapes - himrod, niagra and venus, rhubarb,, several kinds of tomatoes, pole beans, basil, cardamom, bay laurel, borage, lettuce, Mammoth sunflowers, rosemary (my favorite herb), and clover. Others not in my garden are date palms, dwarf cavendish banana, cherimoya, and I just started some windowbox , herbs: cilantro, parsley, trying some tomatillo and pepino seeds, Also, I'm trying some tree seeds for bonsai.
Favorite Aspect of Gardening: Encouraging life. Is that too corny?
If I'm not in my garden, I can usually be found: working, or spending time with my son.
Occupation: Technical support for a billing software company.
spiceoflife
Member Since: 7/30/2007
Last Seen: 4 days, 17 hours ago
About spiceoflife
Hello all,
I have to admit that I haven't always liked gardening. Growing up, my parents would make me water the garden, but that was pretty much it. BORING! As I got older I began to appreciate it more, read a lot about gardening and decided that I wanted to do more of it and do it organically. I like the idea of encouraging life, staying healthy and being a steward to the land. (By the way, when did the chemical companies manage to corrupt the meaning of the gardening phrase "traditional methods" to mean using petrochemical based fertilizers and pesticides instead of referring to the growing practices used by agrarian cultures for the past 10,000 years?) I finally bought a house about 5 years ago and was able to have a real garden. It's in my front yard - actually it IS my front yard, all 30' x 15' of it. It's my place to practice and experiment with all of the organic gardening information, folklore and myths.
I've settled on two guidelines when choosing plants to grow.
1) Since I've decided to garden using organic practices, no GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms).
2) The plant should do more than just look and/or smell good. Ideally it should, at least theoretically, provide something tangible, like food, medicine, building material, etc. E.g, I plan on getting some bamboo so that I can grow my own plant stakes, etc. Or, it should provide some other beneficial function, like attract bees, repel aphids, build up the soil, provide food for birds, etc.
I have a weakness for semi-tropical plants. My living room is full with date palm (from Medjool), passion fruit (purple), cherimoya and dragon fruit (red), lemons and longan berry plants that were all grown from seed from fruit that I bought at the grocery store. Yes, I am sort of proud about that.
I'm still working on olive, and ginger is next. (I had no luck at all with pineapple.) If
anyone is interested, let me know and I'll be happy to post about what
I did, what I learned, and what I would do differently next time. One
plant I would like to try growing here is a paw paw, but I haven't been
able to find any fruits in the grocery store, and the nursery wants
$110 USD plus tax for a 5 foot sapling. 
If anyone would like to trade a paw paw seedling/seeds for a dragon
fruit or passion fruit seedling/seeds, let me know. I'll be posting in
the seed swap forum, too.
As you can probably tell, I don't mind writing, but this is only as long as the subject is something about which I care and have knowledge. My name is Robert. I live in zone 5/6 in Eastern Massachusetts about 15 miles West of Boston. Drop me a line.
Regards.
I have to admit that I haven't always liked gardening. Growing up, my parents would make me water the garden, but that was pretty much it. BORING! As I got older I began to appreciate it more, read a lot about gardening and decided that I wanted to do more of it and do it organically. I like the idea of encouraging life, staying healthy and being a steward to the land. (By the way, when did the chemical companies manage to corrupt the meaning of the gardening phrase "traditional methods" to mean using petrochemical based fertilizers and pesticides instead of referring to the growing practices used by agrarian cultures for the past 10,000 years?) I finally bought a house about 5 years ago and was able to have a real garden. It's in my front yard - actually it IS my front yard, all 30' x 15' of it. It's my place to practice and experiment with all of the organic gardening information, folklore and myths.
I've settled on two guidelines when choosing plants to grow.
1) Since I've decided to garden using organic practices, no GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms).
2) The plant should do more than just look and/or smell good. Ideally it should, at least theoretically, provide something tangible, like food, medicine, building material, etc. E.g, I plan on getting some bamboo so that I can grow my own plant stakes, etc. Or, it should provide some other beneficial function, like attract bees, repel aphids, build up the soil, provide food for birds, etc.
I have a weakness for semi-tropical plants. My living room is full with date palm (from Medjool), passion fruit (purple), cherimoya and dragon fruit (red), lemons and longan berry plants that were all grown from seed from fruit that I bought at the grocery store. Yes, I am sort of proud about that.
I'm still working on olive, and ginger is next. (I had no luck at all with pineapple.) If
anyone is interested, let me know and I'll be happy to post about what
I did, what I learned, and what I would do differently next time. One
plant I would like to try growing here is a paw paw, but I haven't been
able to find any fruits in the grocery store, and the nursery wants
$110 USD plus tax for a 5 foot sapling. If anyone would like to trade a paw paw seedling/seeds for a dragon
fruit or passion fruit seedling/seeds, let me know. I'll be posting in
the seed swap forum, too.As you can probably tell, I don't mind writing, but this is only as long as the subject is something about which I care and have knowledge. My name is Robert. I live in zone 5/6 in Eastern Massachusetts about 15 miles West of Boston. Drop me a line.
Regards.
spiceoflife's Photos
Recent Blog Entries
Have you ever done this?
I have this side yard that last year I let get taken over by volunteer tomato plants. This year I decided that since I wasn't paying much attention to it anyway, I might as well just grow wildflowers and attract the birds and the bees. So I cleared...
quick update
Mangoes 2 out of three dead so far out of the last batch, and the third isn't looking too good.Pineapple top is dead - the roots never grew.Opuntia (prickly pear) leaves are doing nothing, not even rotting. Weird.Three more longan berry seeds sprout...
And again....
Hi all,About a month ago I went to Trader Joe's (a sort of eclectic store with a diverse range of offerings, some specialty items, some staples, pretty good prices) and one of the items I picked up was some dried fruit I had never heard of before, ca...
Here I go again...
So now that I have my new book, Don't Throw It, Grow It! 68 Windowsill Plants From Kitchen Scraps by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam, I'm trying a few new ones and a few that I have tried before.Retries:AAvocado - Last time I managed to get th...
If it didn't exist, I'd've had to write it myself!
I visited my uncle today to hook him up to the internet at his new place. He lives about 45 minutes west of me. On my way home I decided to take a small detour to Littleton, MA to try to make it over to Bonsai West and see the place in person. U...
I have this side yard that last year I let get taken over by volunteer tomato plants. This year I decided that since I wasn't paying much attention to it anyway, I might as well just grow wildflowers and attract the birds and the bees. So I cleared...
quick update
Mangoes 2 out of three dead so far out of the last batch, and the third isn't looking too good.Pineapple top is dead - the roots never grew.Opuntia (prickly pear) leaves are doing nothing, not even rotting. Weird.Three more longan berry seeds sprout...
And again....
Hi all,About a month ago I went to Trader Joe's (a sort of eclectic store with a diverse range of offerings, some specialty items, some staples, pretty good prices) and one of the items I picked up was some dried fruit I had never heard of before, ca...
Here I go again...
So now that I have my new book, Don't Throw It, Grow It! 68 Windowsill Plants From Kitchen Scraps by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam, I'm trying a few new ones and a few that I have tried before.Retries:AAvocado - Last time I managed to get th...
If it didn't exist, I'd've had to write it myself!
I visited my uncle today to hook him up to the internet at his new place. He lives about 45 minutes west of me. On my way home I decided to take a small detour to Littleton, MA to try to make it over to Bonsai West and see the place in person. U...
