Polish plantlife and similar flora where you live.

As you mentioned edible plants, I came across these in the fields near me not long ago.
There's so many great things to harvest out there that most people would just walk by.

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Why do people paint the trunks of the trees white?
And what do they paint it with?

I always guess that is diluted lime or something to stop insect invaders but I really have no idea

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They do it to prevent drunken people bumping into them at night....!

Nooo..actually it is done to prevent attack by insects and fungi...but like you , i don,t know what its painted with...?

Sean are you a biologist?

Unfortunately not.

I started this thread because I know so little about plants.

it is also a means preventing the sap movements in the tree too soon in the spring because of the sun operation - this may make the tree to grow buds too soon and make it vulnerable to night frosts or snowy episodes - gosh do I even make sense in English ;)

Do you mean that the white colour reflects the sunlight or some chemical in the white substance painted on the tree slows down the sap?

i was always told not to eat the white stuff on the tree...
they said it kills bugs...
;)

the substance is lime or chalk and it just reflects the sunshine - I've just read a paragraph about that - the procedure should best be done already in february as it can be quite sunny even then (can remember quite a few warm and sunny ferbruaries where I live) - it is not only that early buds that make a tree vulnerable but also the parts of bark warmed during the sunny day can become adversely affected by night frost and break or yield other wounds in the aftermath - actually painting the trees white with chalk (some stuff like flour or clay is added to the paint so it's thickier and doesn't wash away too easily) has little value in fighting insects and other pest

Thanks for your input Gumishu.

Merged: Let's talk gardening in Poland!!

I have lived here for 8 years and have yet to make a garden. But this is the year!!

So what do you grow? How has it turned out? Any tips for me?

Roses have grown beautifully in my great-aunt's Polish garden. She even uses the roses to make jam & cookies :)

what kind of garden do you mean - a vegetable or a flower garden

as for flowers most things that you can grow in ground in England can also be grown in Poland - you can have simple things like bratki pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fio%C5%82ek_ogrodowy (pansies heh) they flower for quite long and you can have lots of colour forms - they look quite nice as a big colourful patch in the middle of a lawn - you can introduce some flowering sage plants to create en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia_splendens contrasting patterns - scarlet sage has dark green leaves that contrast with light green of pansie foliage and intensive redness of sage flowers also contrasts with typically mild ('pastelowe') colours of pansie flowers

if you want a lot of flowers also consider planting a couple of flowering shrubs - some attract butterflies - though summer lilac will often freeze to the ground (will restart from the roots though) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddleia_davidii

tulips and pansies - tulips will only flower for a couple of weeks in the spring though

pansies look best as a 'flower carpet'

this is not very ambitious but a good start I think

well, it depends what you like.

I don' have a garden, but my father does and I help him every year.

He grows cucumbers, carrots, parsley, beets, waxed beens, rasberries, strawberries, some pumpkins and flowers.

He grows tomatoes and lettuce in a hot house every year.

Some people grow potatoes, cabbage and all kinds of other veggies. You can buy all the seeds and start them on your own.
I forgot about onion, garlic and leeks. Also, you can plant fruit bushes such as goosberries black and red currant. Currants turn well in Poland.

Not to mention fruit trees:). Everything I mentioned usually turns out, although it has to be taken care of as well as it need some type of fertilizer. Either natural or not.

Good luck!

actually your typical varieties of tulips will only flower for as short as a week - this is often amended by planting various varieties that flower in slightly different periods in a mix

Yes should have been more specific...veggie garden is what I meant. In American garden means a place where you grow food. Here garden is your yard.

I keep being told that tomatoes won't do well unless in a hot house. I think i will give them a go. I do hope this summer is less rainy than last.

I will be doing raised bed or square foot gardening, so almost no weeding and no digging! Right now I am planning beets, cucumber, lettuce, parsley, radishes, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes, beans and other hebs. Although I am thinking that may be a bit ambitious for my first time here.

Oh and we are planting pigwa to make more nalewka! This last yeas was amazing.

Nothing special. A few bushes and trees....

we were successfully growing tomatoes in ground before - they need to be planted out in the middle of may as even slight frost will kill them - all you need is to feed them significantly (and water profusely when it's hot) (I am not encouraging you to use artificial fertilizers but if you have no other choice then what can you do) - you also need to PRUNE them (sort of I'm not an expert on this - you need to have only one main stem) -

cucumbers will do well when covered with semi-transparent tissue (they like it warm and humid and as they produce a mass of foliage less sunlight is not a problem) (I don't know the right name for it in English) - it's włóknina in Polish - they need plenty of water too and will strive on compost and nitrogen rich soil

there are vegs that like company of each other and combinations that are harmful - lettuce will grow well next to radishes , lettuce won't mind the company of cucumbers so you can plant them on the borders of the cucumber plot - the lettuce will be mostly gone by the time cucumbers will start overgrowing it - some vegs don't like the company of onions

if you plant strawberry plants this spring all you will have this year is going to be a single or two fruits a small plant (if any) - but they will be surprisingly big (depending on varieties - one variety I can wholeheartedly recommend is Senga sengana - it has delicious sweet intensively coloured and fragrant fruits that are equally good fresh, frozen and in all kind of preserves

(I have no idea what square foot gardening is TBH)

as for pigwa I think they need a couple of years before they bear any significant fruit - the tree needs to be strong simply

think about green peas - they are quite simple and tolerant and wonderfully sweet and tasty when harvested in the right time (children love them) (then they turn hard and bitter) - all you need is a good bunch of sticks sticked along their lines (twigs) so they can climb a bit

ah if you never planted any dill be sure to try to sow some - some people love dill some hate it AFAIK - for me dill is lovely with new young potatoes - you just boil young potatoes and them fry them on a pan with chopped dill - the aroma is heavenly and the taste of the potatoes greatly enhanced - dill can actually fare very well scattered among rows of other vegetables - dill flowers are essential in dill pickle making (though the main ingredient is cucumbers)

Nope, a tree garden. Every garden needs a tree or two. Every neighborhood needs some trees. Trees take in carbon dioxide and provide us with oxygen, cleaning and freshening the air around us. They soften the sharp edges of buildings and lend curves to straight lines man has imposed on our view. Even a small tree creates some shade. The dense shade created by trees by the overlap of leaves and boughs is much cooler during the hot months than, say, an awning.

Thanks gumishu!!

Very helpful! as for trees, we were very lucky that the land we bought had lots of trees. I am planning some bushes though! Pigwa for nalewka will go inthis spring!