Does anyone here like to garden?
By sharone74
@sharone74 (4837)
United States
December 22, 2006 9:59am CST
I do, I love puttering around in my garden, I love growing vegetables and canning my own tomato sauce. I also grow two different varieties of peppers, melons, and sweet potatoes.
7 responses
@BrickShyOfALoad (266)
• United States
23 Dec 06
I'm planning the spring garden now and will soon start readying the planting tables and boxes. We use square foot gardening and the tables and boxes are quite a bit off the ground. That makes the plants much easier to tend and keeps moles out of them too! I grow some herbs, too, and like to have a few of those growing in the corners of the boxes. It's a nice touch. :)
@sharone74 (4837)
• United States
23 Dec 06
I've never heard of square foot gardening. I have heard of raised box gardening but that is still down on the ground where the moles are. Gardens are breeding grounds for furry pests. I have an arch nemesis whom I like to call "Ms. Bunny" who raids my garden every spring when she is pregnant. I am sure that it is not the same bunny both years but I assume it is one of her offspring who learned to get under the fence from good ol mom.
@sharone74 (4837)
• United States
23 Dec 06
So you have a mature garden if you have trees in it. Growing things is life affirming isn't it?
@marciascott (25529)
• United States
23 Dec 06
I always wanted a Garden. Our back yard isn't big enough. But I do love to plant flowers in my front yard.
@sharone74 (4837)
• United States
23 Dec 06
You could cordon off a small area of the front yard for a garden or you can maximize the space in the back yard. I have grown gardens in apartments in a flower box before. Food plants are hardy and tenacious but if your backyard is bigger than 5 x 5 ft you can put in some tomatoes and peppers or something else. There is a certain amount of pride you feel serving pasta sauce that you took fresh off the vine in your garden that morning!
@WhatsHerName (2716)
• United States
23 Dec 06
I also love gardening. There is something rewarding about taking a little seed or plant and watching it grow into a beautiful flower or something you can eat. I think part of the obesity problem we have today is from people not working during the growing season to store up our food for the winter. We have become lazy because we don't have to worry about running out of food in the winter anymore.
A little tip about canning. Freezing is way better. When you can, you overcook the vegetables and cook most of the nutrients out. Freezing is easier, faster and less expensive. I don't can anything anymore. I don't even have to store the jars.
@sharone74 (4837)
• United States
23 Dec 06
thanks for the tip! I have tried freezing my tomato sauce but then it is not as pretty when you give away jars to friends.
@busymomof3 (33)
• United States
23 Dec 06
Gardening is one of my favorite hobbies. I like to say that I have an accidental green thumb in that, although I don't really know what I am doing, I seem to have great success. Chalk it up to a lot of luck! We started out first raised vegetable garden this past summer, and it took off! We had more yellow squash, zuchini, and tomatoes than we knew what to do with. I don't know how to can, so I froze a lot of my tomatoes and just pulled them out of the freezer when we wanted to make pasta sauce. I also have enough frozen zuchini for 42 loaves of bread!!
@calla68 (8)
• United States
23 Dec 06
I love to garden, but I've mostly grown flowers. I have grown pumpkins-too well, in fact-I had vines running everywhere! This year I would like to grow some herbs. Does anyone have any suggestions, especially for growing garlic?
@sharone74 (4837)
• United States
23 Dec 06
It's easy and yes yo have to watch those pumpkins and sweet pototoes if you grow those they will infiltrate everything in your garden. The up side however is that they make great mulch if you just leave them down there. When they start too rot they smell but your garden will be healthier for it.
@wmg2006 (5381)
• United States
22 Dec 06
I enjoy my flower gardens, but have never been able to grow actual food. I think about it all the time and one day plan to plant a small food garden. I know I would be excited as things grew. I tried to grow tomatoes all last year but I was never able to get past a few blooms, it was very frustrating. My flowers are beautiful and I never have many problems but to grow food will be a challeng for me!
@sharone74 (4837)
• United States
23 Dec 06
I grow 4 different varieties of tomatoes for canning and two different varieties of peppers bell and bannana peppers. Growing food pnats is easy, just buy the guaranteed to grow seeds and the ones that are resistant to mold and such. You'll do fine.