Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dulouz]

Any good garden tips this year? Any configuration you want to brag about or share?

This year I've got Brussel sprouts, radishes, carrots, cukes, three different kinds of melons and lots of tomatoes. I have alot of flowers but i'm not a flower guy. . I'm making individual pots from the plastic jugs on the sidewalk or from plywood. I'm also trying to make a large hydro unit and a smaller fog unit. I live on a roof and I have lots of space. I'm getting most of my stuff from Dongdaemun but I did make a tour of the agriculture land in Bundang. That was kind of bad, I think it will be apts soon.

I'm still have seedlings as I have started late but its still only May.

[manlyboy]

Eucalyptus; Lemon Balm; Spearmint; Apple Mint ; Basil; Rosemary; Stevia; Lamb's Ear; Rose Geranium; and something else called "choko geranium" which repels mosquitos - That completes my (mostly) herb garden.

Some dumb questions: I'm unsure about how to maintain the quality of the soil. Who, what, where and how should I be doing this? Also, is there a particular way you should harvest the leaves? I just rip 'em off, dry 'em out, and make tea or seasoning out of them.

Dulouz, did you start your vege garden from scratch? Where did you get the seeds?

[Saunagukin]

Use them fresh, not dried, until the plants start to wither in the fall. Then, harvest all of them and dry them for winter use.

[endofthewor1d]

my garden started out with a single bean that a student gave me when i finished my contract last year. maybe you've seen them in shops. it's called a 'message bean.'
someone branded the words "i love you" on a bean, put it in some soil, and put it on a shelf. when you water it, the bean sprouts out of the soil and says "i love you". cute.
anyway... it worked. i wasn't very excited about it at first. it was just something to occupy a few minutes of every dreary kyonggi do day. but then it kept growing and growing into a monstrous vine. then i became interested. so i went down to the nearest farming shop i could find. (i'm out in the sticks, so it wasn't hard to find one) i bought a bag of soil, some cherry tomato seeds, sesame leaf (the minty kind that you eat with galbi) seeds, coriander (which i've heard will be useful as a spice later) and some other kind of herb (no) seeds as well.
i became obsessed, which is weird because i don't even like vegetables. but now i've got the makings of a small jungle in my sun room. the bean is enourmous, and has finally started to flower and produce pods. soon i will be able to plant the children of the bean. the sesame leaves are big and healthy. i would cook up some galbi and eat them, but i like how they look, so their lives will be spared for now. my tomatoes have finally grown so tall that i needed to buy stakes for them to keep them propped up. a couple of them are flowering, and i should have ridiculous amounts of cherry tomatoes soon that i won't know what to do with. the coriander is growing pretty big. i'd like to make some salsa with it, but i don't know how. a friend of mine does though, so hopefully i'll be able to convince him to visit me here again sometime soon. hmm.... i guess i could use those tomatoes in the salsa as well. brilliant.
i started gutting a few other different things to see if i could plant seeds straight from the fruits. one weekend we had a barbeque, and after i sliced up a tomato, i scraped all of the seeds into one of my homemade flower pots (cut in half plastic coke and beer bottles). now i've got a giant bush of tomato seedlings which i'm afraid are all destined to die prematurely because they're much too close together in a small container. but i'm curious to see if they'll duke it out darwin style, so i'm still watering them.
something else i'm pretty proud of is that the kiwi seeds i extracted from the kiwi my girlfriend gave me have started to sprout. i didn't think this was the appropriate climate for growing kiwis, but i guess i was wrong.
i also tried to dissect a rose that a student gave me, but i'm not even sure if i planted the right part of the plant. nothing sprouted from what i thought were the seeds. ah well... live and learn.
my real goal is to get a big viny jungle in the sun room. the offspring of my hermaphroditic bean should do the trick plenty well. the kiwis are slow growing so far, but i did a little research, and they should be fast growing vines as well once they get going. i'd post a picture, but i don't know how.

[dulouz]

EOW has a very inspirational post. TY. Yea seeds can be had from any fruit or veg, almost any. Brussel spout seeds are hard to get as are carrots. Carrots seeds don't come from the veg, they come from the weed part. I'm trying to melons this year and thats how I got my water, chamae and another melon seed that I don't know the name of.

You can still go shopping at Dondeamun if you want to buy seeds. Take the blue line (4) to dongdeamun and go to the very busy street out exit ? it runs east west and go west. You'll see many sidewalk plant sellers and then proper gardening shops in the building side of sidewalk. They have everything, seeds dirt, fert tools planters. I've got 600 seedlings going but that number will go way down when they mature and they get transplanted.

I get a real giggle out of this stuff, coming home everyday to see what came up, what grew and what got sick.

My garden engineering project for this year is to make an attractive ultra sonic fogger fed planter that will be a combination of a planter and mist feed system with a lava lamp appeal. I want to make one suitable for retail sale.

[endofthewor1d]

inspirational? wow, thanks! anyway... here i'll try to post a picture. i've never done this before, so i don't know if it will work. if it does work, i apologise about the picture quality. my digital camera broke, and i don't know where i can take it to get it fixed. it overexposes everything, which is why it looks as though a nuclear bomb is going off outside my window. anyway, that's my bean, the king of my jungle.

[img][/img]

[tzechuk]

Dolouz... do you live in Korea? You've got brussel sprouts?! If you live in Korea.. can I have some, please?

[dulouz]

Sure, I'll let you know when the little green balls of yum are ready to go.
I miss them too.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Information on SEEDS:

You can order any vegetable, herb or flower seed online. HOWEVER, don't have them sent directly to you. They will get stopped by customs. Have them sent home and repackaged in an inocuous-looking package by your mom. I speak from experience.

I don't have a garden this year. I'm at home and did a lot of landscaping for Mom. Flowers and trees.

I do of course have my herb 'garden' in a big windowbox...basil, oregano, margoram and thyme for soups, onion and garlic chives for salads and sage for dressing. They all are easy to grow from seeds in a windowbox and really do improve the taste of homecooking. Well worth it!

[Ya-ta Boy]

I forgot to mention:

If you live in a shoebox but would still like a garden, consider a roof garden. You can get big plastic tubs dirt cheap anywhere. Be sure to poke a few holes in the bottom--hammer and nail work fine. There are gardening shops all over, especially in traditional markets where you can find dirt, which is dirt cheap.

[endofthewor1d]

an update on my garden...

i finally got my camera fixed. here are some pictures of my plants:

coriander:




gget-nip:




cherry tomatoes, finally starting to grow:




cherry tomatoes, the next generation:




kiwis:




and the king of my jungle, ALTERED BEAN:



when those pods finally dry up and fall off, stay tuned for SON OF ALTERED BEAN...

[desultude]

Are you really not allowed to have seeds shipped to you? I can't imagine that the "innocuous little packages" of seeds wouldn't be a bigger problem than sealed packets from the manufacturer. I need to know about this, as I am about to order fall seeds tomorrow to be shipped to my sister, and she will ship them to me. My oatmeal was opened and examined last time I had stuff shipped, so I can't imagine that little unlabeled packages of seeds wouldn't be.

As for this year's garden. Well. I finally have one, and it is smashing. I got nice window boxes with hooks that hang over my balcony, and they are filled with flowers and herbs. I have homemade salsa with cilantro (coriander) almost every day now. This weekend I'll make some pesto with the basil.

[endofthewor1d]

[OiGirl]

[desultude]