Hi everyone: I've been looking for a friendly gardening forum for a while. I hope to hang my hat here. I'll have tons of questions, but I'll help others where I can. Outside I have perennials and potted annuals. Inside, I'm just getting warmed up with some new plants on their way! I moved from zone 3a to zone 7a, so I'm just learning about my new gardening freedom. I have a lot of baby fruit trees. Greetings from British Columbia
Welcome! We had friends who lived on Vancouver Island, and we were so impressed with how green and verdant it was. Are you primarily growing flowers, or branching out (pun intended) into vegetables and fruits? Looking forward to reading your posts, and helping when I can.
Oh, it refers to the Hardiness Zone maps. It means where I used to live it went to -30C in the winter, and all I could grow were Siberian Irises. Now I live in the Pacific Northwest where it goes to maybe -5C, and I have fig trees. Hi marlingardener and thanks for the welcome. I'm originally from Shreveport, by the way. Yeah, primarily flowers. Eventually I'd like to make soft cider, but my apple trees are too young. I already cut off the few apples I had because the trees need to get bigger and stronger first. I have 9 apple trees, 2 fig trees, 1 peach tree, 3 cherry, 3 plum, and 1 quince. I don't have a veggie garden yet, but I did plant 4 tomato plants this year--my first veggies ever. I'm probably most preoccupied with indoor plants.
Hi Riccur. Vancouver Island is considered one big temperate rainforest. There are distinct wet (winter) and dry (summer) seasons. Summer is around 75-80F and it rarely rains. Since I'm at the 49th parallel, the days are very long in the summer. Winter is very wet. Days are very short, and the sky is almost always grey. I live close to the water, the Georgia Strait, and if it goes down to freezing, it doesn't stay there long. We get a big dump of snow or two, but it melts in a day or two. I have a European Fan Palm, Chamaerops humilis in my front yard. I hang Christmas lights on it when it starts to get cold to keep the core warm. I've had it for 4 years.
Hi there seawitch and a warm welcome to our forums from Scotland. I have a feeling you're going to fit in here just fine and become part of our worldwide GardenStew family. I look forward to getting to know you.
Greetings and vvelcome to you, Seavvitch!!! I think you vvill fit right in vvith this group of Gardening folks from all over the vvorld.. Hank
Hi SeaWitch and a hearty welcome to GardenStew You're going to love it here! So many great members and fun, informative threads. Jump right in!
and a big warm welcome to you seawitch from Colima, Mexico. I expect you will be a "seedling" in no time at all. I think we have at least one other member from Vancouver Island by the name of Kildale...not entirely sure, but i think so. Maybe you have a Stewbie neighbor. It sounds like you made a gooood move (from zone 3 to 7), you must feel like you are living in the tropics.
