Gardens

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
We all know the economy stinks, food prices are steadily climbing up (even with coupons), despite what they assure us on the news.

So how many of us have planted gardens this year and what are you growing? Do you plan to store some of it away?

I have one of my garden plots finished. It consists of broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cucumbers, sweet peppers, it will be finished off today with green beans, and is trimmed in strawberry plants. The 2nd plot that I plan to dig out after Aubrey's birthday party at her great grandparents cabin down in the hills........will have spring onions, sweet onions, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, potatoes, zucchini. Tomatoes are being planted in 5 gallon buckets from Lowes with trellises (I've changed my mind about hanging them as this will work just as well and I picked up the trellises for a buck each) I'm considering a pumpkin patch but haven't decided yet. I'll have sweet corn too, organic by the way........reg sweet corn is now biodesigned to have it's own pesticide and I have no desire to eat pesticide. I'll have my blue berry bushes. And I'm still trying to decide if I'm giving the raspberry/blackberry bushes to easy child or if I'm keeping them and planting them. (not thrilled with the idea they may try to take over the yard after dealing with a jungle of weeds)

In addition, I have herbs growing in pots all over the place. I bought easy child a food dehydrator for xmas........so we can dry them, grind them in our mortar and pestles and put them up into jars.

Nichole will be sharing in the bounty of the garden. She shared in the work. What we can't eat fresh, we will can and put up or dry for soups and stews, or turn into jams and jellies and spaghetti sauces, and freeze ect.

The prices of fruits and veggies are awful.........and if you'd like organic, it's enough to make you faint clear away. So the garden is a good solution.

I have found an Amish source for free range eggs that is just as cheap as krogers reg eggs and for real homemade (omg heavenly!) butter that is just as cheap as most margarine tubs, certainly cheaper than real butter sold in the stores. Best part about this source is that the gas station 2 blocks from me lets them sell there for free, so every friday and sat I can go buy my eggs and butter. (and real butter freezes just fine by the way)

I'm also setting aside a percentage for the food pantry. Because I know what I'm planting and I have a good guesstimate of what it should yield. And even with easy child, nichole and I all doing the canning, freezing, and drying we'd probably keel over if we tried to do it with all of it. Highland county still has the 2nd highest unemployment rate in Ohio. (doesn't surprise me) And I'm sure those who use the food pantry would be thrilled for some fresh fruit and veggies too.

Oh, a great fact I didn't know but just recently learned: YOU CAN USE YOUR FOODSTAMPS TO BUY SEEDS AND FRUIT PLANTs!! So for those who are having to have this help, the govt started this encouraging folks to start growing their own gardens and getting the most bang for their buck, so to speak.

And you can buy organic fertilizer that if you shop around can be competitive with normal fertilizer.

And I'll be paying attention to responses. It has been a very long time since I last put in a garden, and I am attempting some plants that my dad never grew, so I may bug you to death with questions. LOL

easy child is already bugging me about "not planning out my garden in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) detail". But I don't do plants that way, never have. I just put them in where I want them and water them and they grow. it's never been an issue, it's not something I fret about. It used to drive mother in law insane how I did that and yet everything grew just fine and usually flourished........I often have annual flowers turn into perennials and that really drove her nuts. She was a tad anal retentive over her veggie and flower gardens.......and did not get the same results no matter how hard she tried. (and she was good at it too, had nice gardens) But that is how my dad did it and he's who taught me. My mom used to be all over him that he was planting this plant too close to that one or not giving this one enough room and he just did what he did anyway and it all grew just fine regardless. lol So in my opinion, easy child is over worrying her garden..........while I'm just, well "doing it". I give plants room, I just don't over do it and waste space. I have a general idea of how they will look as adult plants. Know what I mean??

So what are you all planting and planning to do with it?
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I am not a gardener. I tried twice I think and if I even attempted to ask Tony again his head would blow. For me, gardening is not worth the effort.

I will never forget the first one I tried to do. He wanted garden peas and beans. Well those are things that you have to sit out on your front porch and snap bushel buckets of them for hours and hours to get one little potful. I finally figured out that I could go out to the local grocery store and buy the same amount for $2.50. Heck no. I let the darn things dry on the vine.

The next time I tried was to plant some tomatoes and some colorful peppers. The chickens ate them.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Lisa, I promise that I will look at your garden but I will never touch it... Or you won't get a harvest... LOL!
 

SuZir

Well-Known Member
We live in semi-rural area (used to be rural, is quickly coming more suburban) and have some land. Mostly things in garden are for summer (herbs, tomatoes, apples, peas etc.) but some we also grow for winter. Potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, beetroots etc. are grown and put to the cellar for the winter. But most important to us are berries. Some we grow in garden (red- and blackcurrants and strawberries mostly), but mostly we just pick wild berries: blueberries, raspberries, cowberries, cranberries. Usually we have around 400-500 quarts or more (if that is suitable US measurement for these type of things) berries in freezer when winter comes. Not much left any more tough, but it doesn't take that long when we will again have new strawberries. We also pick a lot of mushrooms and preserve them for winter. Berry picking is not only for the healthy, tasty and free food, but it and mushroom picking are very relaxing and enjoyable hobbies.

I have now already started gathering my winter stock. Some new, lovely nettles have been picked, boiled and in the freezer (I use nettle same way as spinach.)
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I have tried to grow MANY types of plants. the ONLY one I ever had luck with was poison ivy. Sadly, I planted it in my mother's brand new rock garden. she could NOT understand how it kept getting through the weed barrier stuff she put down, lol. i was four and it was pretty and shiny and looked awesome with the pretty rocks. i didn't know it gave people rashes until a few years later when i suddenly developed the allergy to it. My dad still doesn't get the rash, but now mine is bad enough we go to the er if i get exposed. they won't even let me have an epipen because it took 3 of them last time to stop the reaction.

i stay waaaayyyy out of gardens now. people thank me. one year I tried to water husband's garden for him. it all died. No clue why. he left directions that mostly were turn on the hose at this time, off at that time. they were healthy for him when HE did that. but let me do it for a week and bye bye garden.

be VERY VERY careful with that butter. if the milk was not pasteurized it is not legal to sell it or anything made from it because it can give you a number of very very nasty infections including brucellosis (sp?). I learned this from classes in food safety and from knowing many cattle ranchers and large animal vets. Not a one of them would TOUCH butter made from someone's home with-o making darn sure it was pasteurized.

With the kidney issues you are especially at risk, so call the butter-makers and ask because you cannot afford these infections to save a few dollars. not unless you WANT to die, and there are much faster less painful methods to do that. not saying don't try it, but double check that it is pasteurized. One of my aunt's made this mistake and dang near died and killed her kid with this. In Brown County, OH. It took her eight years to pay the medical bills from the treatments for her and her son.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
This year, my garden is sprouting cars... so I guess I won't be planting much.
That doesn't affect the fruit perennials, though... so at least we get something.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I hear you Susie. But this butter came right from the hand that churned it, so I'm not worried. If that had not been the case.........I wouldn't have bought it. Nor would it be the first time in my life I ingested unpasteurized milk products if that had been the case.

Many folks, including the food industry, like to make a huge issue out of free range eggs too. When honestly, in some ways, they're better than store bought because they store longer and you're getting them fresh.

Source of the food is important, though, I will give them that.

Cars, IC? Well, now if you could sell those cars......................imagine the profit. LOL
 

ThreeShadows

Quid me anxia?
Hey, Hound! We used to buy that type of butter in Maine, no problem there. Peas, spinach and lettuces are a cold weather crop. Consult your local extension service. It took me a while to figure that out, lol! We have three year old blueberries and the birds always get to them before we do. Remember to cover the berries! We are way behind on our vegetable garden because we are leaving for Italy this week and won't be here to water. It's amazing that I feel about my garden the same way I would feel about leaving my child behind.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
OMG 3S!! Italy?? You enjoy every minute, and some for me too! The garden will be there when you get back!

I'll remember that about the berries. I didn't think of the darn birds!

And peas are one that I haven't ever attempted to grow before........hmm. Well, it won't kill me if they don't do well. This year is the What will grow in my yard year.........because it's the first time I've attempted a garden in this yard.
 

ThreeShadows

Quid me anxia?
Snap peas, garden peas, Chinese pea pods! Snap peas are more resistant to hot weather. I grow okra because I like to pick it young and put it on the grill. The sugars caramelize and are delicious, not at all slimy. Rabbits, deer, chipmunks, grey squirrels! We have such a miraculous planet Earth!!! I am so grateful to the Creator for all this fertility!
 

Jody

Active Member
I have a container garden as I live in an apartment. I have 5 different types of tomato plants, pole green beans, green peppers and red peppers, zuccinni and baby spinach. I also have herbs, cilantro, parsley, sweet basil, and rosemary and thyme. I have peppermint and lavendar. I love to go outside and work in my garden, I have 68 pots outside, spaced out around the building. Now I just hope the neighbors don't eat the produce. I plan on offering some but hope they don't help themselves. I collected pots of freecycle and friends and bought some myself at walmart.
 

greenrene

Member
Here in FL our growing season is opposite from most of the rest of the country - summer is too hot for most food crops except tropical stuff. I have mint, parsley, thyme, and a pineapple plant in containers, I'm planning for my September garden - a salsa/sauce garden, a salad garden, various herbs, etc. My yard has a lot of shade, so it's tricky.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Lisa I think you may be getting some things in a bit late. Onions, taters and root things should have already been in. Do you have a fence that things can grow up? If so, grow Kentucky wonder beans. Those are so delish. They are the same thing that are sold in the cans called Italian green beans. They are flat and you just steam them and serve with a bit of butter. Cook with a tiny bit of ham.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Yup. I'm getting some things in late.........but around here it usually means you just harvest them later. Most years we stay pretty warm into November. I've never had an issue planting onions late.....Dad never planted until after Mother's day because he'd been burned by frost too many times when he was young. The taters are one of the experiment plants. Not a huge issue if they don't do well.......I just wanted to see if they'll grow at all to some extent. And it's not like I made special effort to get them. They're taters that sprouted in my kitchen. lol

But between rain and working.......it put things off because I had to get the weeds cleared out before clearing the area for the garden. :sigh:
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
This is "late" for putting in a garden? Guess that's the difference a few degrees of latitude makes... because up here, nobody gets much of a start before this past weekend... anybody not away for the long weekend (ours is a week ahead of yours) was busy putting in their garden. Keeners have started sprouting indoors before now, but... risk of frost. And if we don't get our garden in by next weekend, it's too late - frost and short days will get us every time.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well, onions and root veggies go in late march because frost doesnt matter. Everything else you look at the back of the seed packets for your area. I also bought tomato and pepper plants that had already been started but you could start them in your home from seed. I love them different colors of sweet peppers. They have the normal yellow, red and green but also brown, purple and orange. Tomatoes come in orange, pink, striped, all kinds of cool colors. The kids would love those. Imagine pink tomatoes...lol.
 

Ktllc

New Member
No garden for me this year... the only sunny and leveled area on the property is housing our new oversized kiddie pool! LOL The kids are delighted. As husband put it: "we might starve this year, but we are going to have fun!!".
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
husband has the green thumb in the family. He's growing green peppers, zucchini, and tomato this year. Hopefully I don't kill them when I'm responsible for watering while he's away on a business trip next month.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
OMG, Hound Dog, you are amazing! I've got lots of herbs (used oregano in the spaghetti sauce last night, and mint in the tea on the weekend), and I do have blueberries but I'm not sure what to cover them with. Netting from a hardware store?

3Shadows, have a GREAT time! Tell us all about it when you get home.
 
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