Home Garden...Are you planting one this year?

That is so funny that they get drunk on the grapes:) We haven't had a problem with the birds getting into the strawberries. There are tons so even if they got into them, there is always enough for use to pick at leaste a quart every day when they are in season.

You drew such a visual picture of drunk birds that I was smiling big just thinking about it. Do you do cucumbers for pickling or large table varieties? And what type of peppers or tomatoes do you generally grow?

We plant Burpee Burpless cucs. We eat them almost every night in the summer. My kids love them. They will eat them as a snack just plain. I alway grow green peppers, not hot ones. My husband is in charge of the tomatoes as he is the only one who will eat them.

I knew about the black walnut trees. But it's not just the roots. Anything under the tree hang may also be affected. Do you have anyplace in your 2 acres thats near water and not around the black walnut trees? But if not, the planters are the next best thing.

Not exactly. The only place place whithout a black walnut (we have 5) is in the back. That's where the horse is. I'm sure he wouldn't mind it though. lol

How are horses when it comes to gardens? Do they eat just about anything, like a rabbit? We all know they eat carrots, but is there anything they don't eat? Maybe your could put a patch inside a small fence, inside the horses area. You would get sunshine and there must be some water nearby for the horse?

thanks, Jellen, the info about lettuce is very helpful! I never knew that! May have to plant our lettuce in pots too!

she plants flowers and enjoys that, but has never gotten into the veggie garden mode. It is easier and cheaper to get them at the local market.

This year I'm skipping the peas. They take up too much room and produce too little. Cantaloupe don't grow well where I live, but my pole beans do very well. The price of lettuce will keep me doing several pots near the door to come on at different times. I hate slugs, and we have so many on the ground that lettuce is in their target. Keeping it up higher keeps them out. Then I can salt around the pot bottom or use pellets without getting pellets into our food supply. My rhubarb is looking to come up any day now.

Every little bit seems to help. Maybe you can get a tomato already potted for on a deck or some herbs in containers for your window sill? Plants don't take up that much room and they brighten up places. Some herbs have beautiful flowers and can be used in place of flowers--plus you can eat them.

Good for you. Those herbs can get so costly if they're fresh, that it pays to have a pot of them growing. I would suggest having parsley and maybe chives on the window sill. These two herbs you are apt to use for garnishes, if nothing more. They are my biggest users.

That is not a bad idea. There would be nothing wrong with getting some little pots for vegetables and maybe putting them in the windows near the sunlight. I am just looking to save money like I have probably mentioned in my response to you earlier. I am going to try to see what I can do in that respect. Like I said I am not really a gardener by nature but I guess I don't really have to be one to have a few house plants hanging around! Here's to saving some money!

Good for you! I have wondered about hybrid seeds. Before, I've tried to save seeds, but when they have been hybrid, for some reason, they don't germinate or produce. Is it just me or is there something to that? I did save soome of my pole beans last year, from the pods I let overripen and they were not good to eat. But since I've invest five buck so far into seed for my garden this year, I plan to see what I can save for next year. I've never had much luck with growing tomatoes from seeds, though.

You don't hear that every day. A worm farm. Do you sell to the public or do you just manage the worm farm for your planting interests? Thanks for the infor about saving seeds.

I have a worm farm, so I throw all food scraps into this. The worms turn it into wonderful comnpost and they germinate the seeds for me at the same time. Tomatoes are always the one thing I end up giving away about 25 seedlings every year (I keep four for myself). Pumpkin seeds are also so easy to grow from keeping seeds from food you've eaten. Same with cucumber and zucchini and strawberries.

Every little bit helps with food budget and healthy eating. I hope it all works out for you. Patio gardening is still gardening.

What about the wife? Didn't you say she is enjoying retirement now? Or is gardening not enjoyable? You live down south where you have access to crops growing most of the year. If you lived up north, you'd know how we feel about those high veggie prices. How are your prices? They don't tempt you to garden?

Good luck with that farming. It's wonderful to get your hands into soil and to see the fruit of your labor. But you know as well as I do--it's going to be a lot of work.

Good thing I love work. ^_^

I hope it all works out for you. Good weather, rain at the right time, pests blocked, and lots of hands to help with the weeding, harvesting, canning, and freezing. Bartering or trading is a good plan and I hope you have neighbors, family, or friends who can fill in the gaps of what you don't have. Good luck!

That's pretty much the way a lot of folks are thinking. I read where on family saved 2000 plus dollars on groceries in a year, just by growing a garden. I'm sure our gardens will help, but probably not anywhere close to the 2000 plus amount.

With all that great outdoor work you do, do you find time to MyLot in the spring, summer, and fall? I'm proud to know you are one who takes your gardening seriously.

I don't know where you live! But, I usually get up at 3:30 a.m., morning coffee, a bit of myLotting! Off to work at 5:30 a.m.! Home at 10:30 a.m. from that job (7 days a week)then off to my contracts & seeings I work for myself, I can finish the day when I feel that I have accomplished what I need to! So usually, push the envelope so that I am home by 4 p.m. Spring, summer & fall gives me the evenings to garden, as it is the perfect way to wind down after an 11 or 12 hour workday!Cheers!

I'm in the Northwest, up by 5:30 and right to the computer. I usually check all that needs checking, read the news, check e-mail, write an AC article, check my blog, check MyLot... Then I run errands, drive my disabled husband to his dr. apts., make business calls, handle all the household chores, prepare meals, check MyLot again, plan for the next day's writing assignments, and somewhere in between all that, I get the mail and check things in the yard. I think the laundry, the cooking, or the MyLotting is going to have to take a backseat to the gardening to fit everything into my day.

Ok, now I have to ask. What's the square foot gardening method all about? Maybe you could explain it. How much does it feed, how do you know your few seeds will take, and how high are your planting boxes? Do you use a special kind of soil and fertilizing method?

This sounds very interesting. I have a rather small space and I usually cluster things and end up with too much in an area. Can you really get that much out of only a few plants? Seems like the more the plants, the more the produce. But maybe that thinking has been my biggest problem.

The boxes were a foot high, and four feet by four feet around. I filled didn't even really till the ground beneath them -- our rocky ground was one reason I built up rather than digging down. I just broke it up a bit with a pick. I filled them with a 1:1:1 mix of manure, peat moss and coarse vermiculite. I then divided the 4 x 4 boxes into, roughly, one foot squares, though some types of plants actually needed a little more room. How many seeds per square also depends on the type of plant. For instance, you can put four lettuce plants (leaf lettuce) in a square but only one tomato. Things like squash, that like to spread out, get a much larger space. Two planters kept our four person family in tomatoes, peas, bush beans, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, onions, scallions, and spinach (I know there was something else in there, but I can't remember it) all season. Weeding and watering was simple, as we were technically only working with a one foot square at a time. There is a book, Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholemew, which outlines the process in detail.

Ok, now you have me rethinking zukes. The apple pie did the trick. But I have to come up with a better pie shell than hydrogenized shortening and white flour. Being diabetic, I must be careful. I wonder what the carb content of zukes is and whether I could cook with stevia and apple pie spices and still get an apple tasting dish. No chickens where I live. I did that a few years back at one place I lived and boy was that a messy endeavor. Tell me more about the crushed egg shells.

I just got a few seed packets yesterday, but our ground won't be ready for planting until May. The soil is too wet and there is still freeze danger into May. I planted carrots the two last years and ended up leaving most in the ground. They would pull up out of my clay soil. Not planting them this year. And this year, I am only planting one zucchini plant--no matter how I convince myself otherwise.

We actually stopped growing cucumbers and plant 6 zucchini plants we use them all the time i shred 26 bags quart size and freeze , we use them in place of cukes for pickling and they can even be used in place of apples if you peel them in apple pie and no one i served it to knew the difference. we also have 10 laying hens that love the leftover zucchini if we have any , we grill them , bake them and if you do leave the skin on and eat them young they are super

Learn how to do sprouts. Window sills are always a good place for sprouts to green-up. You could also do some kitchen herbs on your sill.

I had a friend in college who built a grow light operation in our dining room. She grew lots of different veggies right there. Maybe you could do something like that in an obscure place around your home. Sunlight can be artificial too.

Canning is a great way to put away for winter. If you have freezer room, so is freezing. And dehydrating is one more way to preserve foods. If you don't have one, it's worth getting one or learning how to dehydrate in the stove. But that sounds like a lot to spend on electricity to dehydrate in the oven. Hope the garden does a great job for you all.

You might not be able to eat an aloa vera plant, but it would offer some wonderful healing advantages. Some do eat aloa vera, but I don't. Some folks also eat certain types of cacti, but I don't know much about that either. Good luck with the plant.