Gardening

[Goodness Nose]

on the left, more sandalwood seeds! on the right, heart shaped boswellia serrata (frankincense) seeds! soaking in water for 24 hours before planting is good for these slow growers. hoping for at least 1 new tree per batch of seeds here! low germination rate, but the ones that do seem harty.

 

[Mr.P]

on the left, more sandalwood seeds! on the right, heart shaped boswellia serrata (frankincense) seeds! soaking in water for 24 hours before planting is good for these slow growers. hoping for at least 1 new tree per batch of seeds here! low germination rate, but the ones that do seem harty.

Nice - frankincense now!

 

[Saudalhajri]

Apparently my moringa is blooming

 

[Matthew]

Don’t know if anyone gardens here. This is my third year of giving it some effort. My whole yard and seedling stash got flooded out in June so it has been a hard summer for the plants. I am having some success now with some produce like tomatoes, basil, tomatillos, jalapeno, Serrano, new mex peppers.

Here is a weird one: I grew some sacred Aztec tobacco this summer
Nicotiana rustica. Heard it can be used for both insecticide and unusual mental clarity and entheogenesis, so it was a no brainer to get some started.

Picked a bunch of the tops and seed pods yesterday since they were growing too tall for the rock garden they were planted in. Got the resin / oil all over my hands when I picked them… a few minutes later my mind crystallizes, very clear thinking and gentle energetic mindstate; simultaneously I notice a familiar tingle in my hands and feet. Washed my hands well at that point as I had a solid “nicotine plus” buzz going and clearly had absorbed a fair amount of nicotine (and whatever other alkaloids make this stuff unique).

Anyway 10/10, would repeat if not for addiction issues. Primitive tech nicotine patch if you slap a leaf on your forearm.

I have also planted many lemon scented thyme plants - one of my favorite scents - there is something special there. Thyme will overgrow turf here and form solid lawns of thyme - hoping to cover much of my 1/4 acre with the lemony kind.

I’ve added pics of the tobacco flowers, my cat by one of the plants and a fire pit where the tobacco is growing.

I’ve gathered a bunch of field stone, and I’ve been making different arrangements to make some thing like the stone lanterns I see on Japanese gardens. Now I have to figure out where to put them in the yard.

Yes, my dream is to make my own Japanese tea garden. Similar to this photo.

 

[Saudalhajri]

Moringa

Jasmine sambac

I almost lost hope on the Jasmine especially in the beginning, everything wilted and leaves fall, some branches turned completely yellow and white. But somehow it’s blooming

 

[Mr.P]

I discovered today that my mother plants proliferated and I have valerian seedlings everywhere. Smells like spikenard. So happy that this is a plant i will have to control in my yard. I think I successfully got burley and Aztec/Turkish tobacco and two types of opium poppy taking over as well - still waiting for those to emerge. Lemon thyme, lime mint, sweet woodruff, mountain mint, wild ginger and wild rose, lavender, elecampane, and sage (rosemary looks sketchy) are also established at this point. 🙂

 

[Taesik Yun]

Dendrobium Kingianum and Freesia. lovely flowers. 🥰

 

[Mr.P]

I thought I wasn't going to grow any cannabis this year, but the local florist had some really reasonable seeds so off we go. Three female F1 "Medusa" hybrids (sugar magnolia x american beauty) one female Critical Mass and one freaking seed sex unknown I managed to carry over from last year's plants - I believe it to be the result of a cross between two Alien Mints plants (which did not really impress me last year but I'll take what I can get).

Anyway here's hoping these things grow quickly and don't need a lot of maintenance (as tends to be the case). This is my first time growing from any kind of legit seed bank material outdoors, so I'm sure it will be interesting.

The other plant is a huge valerian which is really setting down some hefty roots. This is basically the European version of spikenard, closely related as I mentioned before, smells just like green spikenard oil every time I transplant it - earthy, super funky / musky, spicy, rich and sweet. Dozens of these plants getting started this year so I will have material to run through the extractor, make some weird funky valerian extract, unleash that on the world and see what people think. A neighbor stopped to talk the other day after I was transplanting these I had to wonder if she was catching a whiff of the valerian and if she thought it was me needing a bath or something lol

It's been nice to have a couple of dry days to garden - everything looks so nasty/bleak after the winter, still a lot of cleanup to do.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

@Mr.P "I thought I wasn't going to grow any cannabis this year, but the local florist had some really reasonable seeds so off we go.' This first sentence just blows my mind. We're still living in the age of serious jail time and prosecution for such behavior here in Australia. Amazing. Beautiful plants btw.

 

[Mr.P]

@Mr.P "I thought I wasn't going to grow any cannabis this year, but the local florist had some really reasonable seeds so off we go.' This first sentence just blows my mind. We're still living in the age of serious jail time and prosecution for such behavior here in Australia. Amazing. Beautiful plants btw.

I still can't believe it is legal here - I have that prohibition era mindset deeply ingrained from most of my youth and adult life. My personal experience is that it's good to keep it away from young developing minds but absurd to prohibit it beyond that. I'm not trying to stir up a debate just reacting to your situation

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

I'm with you 100% on everything you said. Here in OZ it just comes down to politician's not wanting to lose popularity because they have changed their stance on drugs. That's all it is. We have an abundance of evidence for all sides of the issue, 90% of it in favor. I mean the revenue that it can generate in taxes alone is a no brainer. Freeing up the court system, new industies, job creation, let alone the fact that Australia has the highest number of consumers of cannabis in the world per capita already, blah, blah, blah. We're about to have a federal election this coming weekend and the Cannabis party in each states senate are actually looking pretty good to get some seats. Change is coming. I'll see it in my lifetime but man it's slow!

 

[Be en Foret]

View attachment 46113View attachment 46114

I thought I wasn't going to grow any cannabis this year, but the local florist had some really reasonable seeds so off we go. Three female F1 "Medusa" hybrids (sugar magnolia x american beauty) one female Critical Mass and one freaking seed sex unknown I managed to carry over from last year's plants - I believe it to be the result of a cross between two Alien Mints plants (which did not really impress me last year but I'll take what I can get).

Anyway here's hoping these things grow quickly and don't need a lot of maintenance (as tends to be the case). This is my first time growing from any kind of legit seed bank material outdoors, so I'm sure it will be interesting.

The other plant is a huge valerian which is really setting down some hefty roots. This is basically the European version of spikenard, closely related as I mentioned before, smells just like green spikenard oil every time I transplant it - earthy, super funky / musky, spicy, rich and sweet. Dozens of these plants getting started this year so I will have material to run through the extractor, make some weird funky valerian extract, unleash that on the world and see what people think. A neighbor stopped to talk the other day after I was transplanting these I had to wonder if she was catching a whiff of the valerian and if she thought it was me needing a bath or something lol

It's been nice to have a couple of dry days to garden - everything looks so nasty/bleak after the winter, still a lot of cleanup to do.

I love the smell of Valerian flowers.....Super narcotic and musky. One hot summer day, I suddenly got very tired when in the garden and actually laid down in a row. It was the Valerian flowers, in peak bloom, that I let volunteer throughout the gardens. They were woozing me! Try to get your roots in the extractor asap, the longer the roots sit around, the more old socky they get. It is quite easy to grow Spikenard. I am surprised that more people do not grow it. I am in zone 4, so Spikenard is always coming up a wee bit too early to really thrive for me, but in a higher zone, I would think she would be very happy. Himalayan plants can be tricky, because while they are acclimated to cold, their solar declination is in the way South of the USA. Most like super well drained soils, but not Spikenard, which usually grows on riverbanks and in ditches. Smelled my first Viola odorata today! The heaven of orris and roses. 💜

 

[SteveE]

In case any of you need to clear out your sinuses, you can come over when we’re grinding our artisanal, small batch cayenne pepper here in North Texas.

We continue to evolve our seed to table process, refining everything as we go.

As an example of the ongoing improvement, I’m working on a new dehydration system where I will separate the seeds from the shells and dehydrate them separately, and then re-combine. The characteristics of the two components are so vastly different. This will help us keep the higher fractions of the essential oil in the shell.

And of course keep the separate components for other experiments.

Most important part of post:

Whenever you want to trade wood
Or oil for pepper, I’m just a DM away 🙂

 

[PersonelHigh]

I discovered today that my mother plants proliferated and I have valerian seedlings everywhere. Smells like spikenard. So happy that this is a plant i will have to control in my yard. I think I successfully got burley and Aztec/Turkish tobacco and two types of opium poppy taking over as well - still waiting for those to emerge. Lemon thyme, lime mint, sweet woodruff, mountain mint, wild ginger and wild rose, lavender, elecampane, and sage (rosemary looks sketchy) are also established at this point. 🙂



View attachment 45083

Inspired!!

 

[Mr.P]

 

[Be en Foret]

View attachment 46562

V. odorata?

 

[Be en Foret]

I have a small, but growing, patch of Viola odoratas. I nurse them through our very cold winters under a layer of Pine needles. On warm days, I can smell Viola's powdery, rosy scent twenty feet away. On our mostly cool spring days, I lie next to them and inhale, until I go nose blind.

 

[Mr.P]

V. odorata?

This is some kind of woodland violet, "volunteers", no aroma that I can detect.

 

[SophMarie]

Avid gardeners and botanists assemble, please. @Mr.P There’s a stranger in my garden and I fear it may be a monster. It’s the the tall, tree-like plant next to the yellow false indigo. All guesses welcome. Thank you 🙏

 

[Mr.P]

It looks a whole lot like a pretty healthy Angelica plant. There are a number of different plants in the same family that have more or less the same growth habit though and I'm not familiar with all of them, so if you could get a picture of the flower heads when they start to flower that would narrow it down a bit.

Angelica

I scattered a bunch of seeds from the wild Angelica that grows near the edge of the swamp near me but so far I haven't seen a sign of it. I may have to transplant one! The type that grows around here is called Angelica astropurpurea which seems like a pretty spiffy scientific name to me.