thepiggs 2 years, 9 months ago said: What's in Your Garden? Just wondering what others will have in their gardens this spring. We have lots of tomatoes and peppers and volunteer rogue red basil and Egyptian onions (winter onions) and volunteer rogue Asian/yardlong beans every year. Anyone have any unusual or very special tomatoes or peppers that they like to grow? I always have several favorites! I leave some of the climbing Asian beans that will vine up like Jack in the beanstalk's beans that produce lovely flowers that the hummingbirds like. I also harvest the beans and take to our favorite Chinese restaurant. They love them as they come freshly picked and we don't use pesticides on them. They stir-fry them in a brown sauce and also chop them up and add to their fried rice dishes. Our tomatoes also end up in a delicious beef dish. Oh, I must mention our humongous cucumbers. They are our "secret" veggie that never fail to impress the non-gardeners. It's all in the water and fertilizer!
paige 2 years, 9 months ago said: In the Garden My roomate and I are experimenting this spring with a potted garden in our cemented yard. We have a tomato plant, a strawberry plant, sage, rosemary, thyme, and some lettuce that will hopefully decide to sprout soon. My next project will be a few pots of string beans, and then we'll sow some corn and summer squash (and whatever else we fancy) on my parents land. It will be nice to work in real dirt again!
edensong 2 years, 8 months ago said: RE: What's in Your Garden? Do tell your secret about cucumbers, please! When I lived in Texas, everything grew large. lol It's been years since I've grown much more than peppers and herbs. We recently moved (after 20 years) and I'm starting all over in our new place. It's quite wooded here, so it will be a challenge with the herbs, but I'm up for it. I can at least do them in pots on our big deck this year until I figure out the best spots.
cooky 2 years, 8 months ago said: RE: What's in Your Garden? I have a raised bed organic garden. I always grow several kinds of tomatoes to eat fresh and can, and like to have a couple varieties of cherry tomatoes too. I'll grow a plot of peppers - red bell, mild banana, and a slightly hotter variety as well. I have one plot of herbs - which always gets away from me; I never keep up with it but swear every year I'll do better! I usually grow squash or zucchini, but think I might instead plant two plots of green beans this year to eat fresh and freeze. I love roasted vegetables, and while frozen green beens are usually not very good, they are absolutely delicious roasted! By the way, all the peppers do wonderfully chopped and frozen, all ready to throw into the roasting pan. I always grow cucumbers and make pickles using Mrs. Wages spices for dill pickles. Last year I used her Bread and Butter spices to make relish using cucumbers and the slightly hot peppers. It was a wonderful spicy sweet combo!
chefcarolyn 2 years, 8 months ago said: In my garden This will be my first garden - Bell peppers, cucumber lemons, spinach, mesclun, tomatoes (I want to try several varieties), Asparagus peas and a lot of herbs. I am quite excited but scared at the same time!
farmerdan 2 years, 8 months ago said: MY GARDEN I have just started a herb garden and so far have rosemary, thyme, oregano, dill, and will be adding more when I get to the nursery.
tpatti 2 years, 7 months ago said: RE: What's in Your Garden? Hi, I just joined your group. Hope that is okay. I planted all my flower beds yesterday along with some leaf lettuce. I purchased some basil, rosemary, sweet 100 cherry tomato plants, some Beefsteak tomato plants, some Brandywine plants (my favorite heirloom), some lettuce seeds, two zucchini plants and right now I can't remember the rest. I am a little sore after yesterdays plantings, so I will plant my vegetable garden the beginning of next week. I love this time of year. I also enjoyed reading what others had planted. I almost forgot I have chives that come up every year, gotta love that.
dancegypsy67 2 years, 7 months ago said: RE: What's in Your Garden? We still have a couple of weeks before our last frost date, so nothing's out yet (if only I had stayed in town this past weekend to get lettuce and spinach in the ground...), but I have shallots, runner beans, chard, patty pan squash, and carrots (seeds we saved from a 2nd year plant) to put out. I planted ginger mint last year and was afraid it might not come back...it's back with a vengance (I should have known)! I will definately be putting in nasturtiums again. I'd like to add lavendar and thyme this year too. Everything else will probably be impulse purchases from the farmers' market.
starzsway 2 years, 7 months ago said: RE: What's in Your Garden? this is my first year trying to grow my own veggies....but I have lots of pots, not a garden in the traditional sense....but I'm trying my hand at tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and carrots! everything's green, just hope it'll fruit! LOL
dancegypsy67 2 years, 7 months ago said: RE: What's in Your Garden? starzsway,
My neighbor has had lots of luck growing peppers, eggplant, carrots and potatoes in pots (tomatoes should do well too - she doesn't like them) and well as herbs. Hardest part is trying to keep up with the watering!
tpatti 2 years, 7 months ago said: RE: What's in Your Garden? Yeah! Today was the day, I planted my vegetable and herb garden. I checked the weather reports, hope they are accurate, looks like no chance of any more frost. Keeping my fingers crossed. I have a mystery tomato plant. I lost the tag, so I am not sure what variety it is, silly hubby said when it gets something on then you will know what it is?!? I guess you can tell he isn't a gardener, he didn't even know it was a tomato plant. I tried something new this year, put coffee grounds around my tomato plants, it is supposed to add nutrients and keep away tomato worms etc. Hope it doesn't harm the plants in any way. Anyone ever heard of this?
thepiggs 2 years, 7 months ago said: tpatti I won't go as far as to say the grounds add nutrients but coffee grounds are acidic and tomatoes enjoy a more acidic soil. Cotton bur compost does something similar, as does mulching with pine needles or oak leaves. Any of these will also add small amounts of compost back into the soil as they degrade so that is also a plus. It's little tricks like these that help the soil and the plants.
thepiggs 2 years, 7 months ago said: Another trick We also save banan peels and very old bananas to put in the holes as we plant our tomatoes. These will have extra potassium in them, as well as other nutrients. Tomatoes give us potassium so any extra that can be added is good.
thepiggs 2 years, 7 months ago said: fish... Crappie and blue gill spawning (lots of fishing) coincides with tomato and pepper planting in our neck of the woods so the left overs from cleaning have always gone into the planting holes for tomatoes and peppers. If the Indians thought they were good and planted fish with their corn then we think they are also good enough for our garden. We dig large holes for each plant, add fresh compost and our extra additions before putting the plants in. You might be surprised at the results, if you also try it. Let nothing go to waste.
tpatti 2 years, 7 months ago said: thepiggs I too have a compost heap and add a shovel full to each hole I am digging for the plants. I usually have the biggest tomato plants around. I was devastated a few months ago when a neighbor was cleaning up and accidentally drug my compost heap away. Thank you for the tips, I am always looking for ideas for better gardening.
thepiggs 2 years, 7 months ago said: Compost We always add compost when digging holes, as this help enrich and lighten the soil. We started out with a terraced garden, with nothing but pure red, heavy clay soil. After several years we now have a much nicer soil. It's far from perfect but it's much better than it was. We buy bagged compost and also use our own, which just doesn't keep up with our demand for it. We dump our guinea pig cleanings in the compost pile or use it as mulch around nitrogen loving plants, such as squash and cucumbers (and corn). Most of it is wood shavings, which is really good as a mulch to keep weeds down and also hold moisture in the soil. GP cleanings are quite similar to rabbit, which means it's easy to use and won't burn the plants, unless it's pure poo. It you know someone who has guinea pigs or rabbits, be kind to them and offer to take their cleanings away for them! It's a shame to send something this good to the landfills. If it's in your yard, keep it there! That is what we try to practice. A chipper/shredder will grind most anything up into a size that is easy to compost or mulch with. We keep barrels of mulch/compost and when one is ready, we just drag it to where we want to use it. We also keep a compost pile, which gets anything that we don't want to throw into the barrels, which is often. All of this makes of delicious garden produce or flowers!
watkinsgal 2 years, 5 months ago said: fish..... Tried the fish remains when planting tomatoes....the raccoons dug up my tomatoes to get to the fish. Bummer! I try to compost chicken manure along w/ cedar shavings from the coop, but it seem to take forever to compost. Any suggestions? I add coffee grounds and other "greens" from the garden...probably not enough to offset the chicken manure...maybe???
Weeds are what is mostly in my garden this summer.... Along w/ tomatoes, peppers, turnips, carrots, beets, cabbage, cucumbers, swiss chard, zucchini, yellow squash....onions are drying in the sun, spinach and lettuce has bolted...it needs to go to the chickens. Green beans are doing ok, but my fall planting always does better.
Nothing but leaves on the fruit trees this year. Northern Missouri was hit by a hard freeze in April. No cherries, pears or apples this year. :o(
thepiggs 2 years, 5 months ago said: No fruit Yes, I know about the hard freeze, as my peach and mulberry trees are fruitless this year. It didn't stop the neighbor's walnut tree from producing though, and now the walnuts are dropping early, at the edge of our garden. grrrrr My tomatoes are doing well, as are the cucumbers. My dill is just about ready to harvest, tomatoes are beginning to ripen, peppers are setting on and the cucumbers are just setting fruit. Pretty soon I will have give-aways! We would cut up our fish and bury them deep to keep the coons out. Dogs are also good at digging them up OR keeping the coons away. Hope your harvest is good.
divaliscious 1 year, 10 months ago said: What's in your garden... Everyone here's gardens sound great 'cept for a few raccoon pests here and there...how are those fruit trees doing now?
Since moving I have the fun part of designing and doing my garden (once again) from scratch. It simply kills me not being able to bring some of my hard work (think plants) to my new place as this has happened to me three times already. It makes me start to think of finding a place that I can stay for 20 years - lol. Though I did bring with me many of the seeds where I could.
I'll be creating a roof top container garden and taking an empty plot next to me building (I live in a small city) and turning it into something green. I have high hopes, but will start simple leaving most of the roof top gardening for herbs for easy access and some veggies while creating a care-free flower garden (some edible) in the empty plot....
evegpt 1 year, 9 months ago said: RE: What's in Your Garden? I am doing the square foot gardening method this year. Years ago when I had three gardens going,,,,I used the Ruth Stout method...It was great..no weeds ever....if I still had the energy to throw that hay around I would still be doing it. I will mulch my square foot garden with hay though. Just tuck it around the plants when they get up and running. So far, I have planted carrots, radishes, lettuce, peas and onions plus pots of rosemary, spearmint, lemon balm, lemon thyme, chives and I put out some arugula plants so I can have lettuce before the ones I planted from seed start producing. I hope to get my tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and beans in the ground after the 20th..I don't want to have to cover things up in case we have a late frost.
evegpt 1 year, 9 months ago said: RE: What's in Your Garden? Just went back out today and planted broccoli and cabbage and some shallots. My radishes are all ready up in five days, and I think I saw the lettuce peeking up a little. With square foot gardening, you harvest and replant all the time,,,,intensive planting and staggered so you don't get a lot of anything at one time. I have been known to plant way too many squash and eggplant...but squash is my favorite veggie, so I try to eat all I can and give the rest away...it doesn't freeze well for me.
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thepiggs 2 years, 9 months ago said:
What's in Your Garden?
Just wondering what others will have in their gardens this spring. We have lots of tomatoes and peppers and volunteer rogue red basil and Egyptian onions (winter onions) and volunteer rogue Asian/yardlong beans every year.
Anyone have any unusual or very special tomatoes or peppers that they like to grow? I always have several favorites!
I leave some of the climbing Asian beans that will vine up like Jack in the beanstalk's beans that produce lovely flowers that the hummingbirds like. I also harvest the beans and take to our favorite Chinese restaurant.
They love them as they come freshly picked and we don't use pesticides on them. They stir-fry them in a brown sauce and also chop them up and add to their fried rice dishes. Our tomatoes also end up in a delicious beef dish.
Oh, I must mention our humongous cucumbers. They are our "secret" veggie that never fail to impress the non-gardeners. It's all in the water and fertilizer!
paige 2 years, 9 months ago said:
In the Garden
My roomate and I are experimenting this spring with a potted garden in our cemented yard. We have a tomato plant, a strawberry plant, sage, rosemary, thyme, and some lettuce that will hopefully decide to sprout soon. My next project will be a few pots of string beans, and then we'll sow some corn and summer squash (and whatever else we fancy) on my parents land. It will be nice to work in real dirt again!
edensong 2 years, 8 months ago said:
RE: What's in Your Garden?
Do tell your secret about cucumbers, please! When I lived in Texas, everything grew large. lol It's been years since I've grown much more than peppers and herbs. We recently moved (after 20 years) and I'm starting all over in our new place. It's quite wooded here, so it will be a challenge with the herbs, but I'm up for it. I can at least do them in pots on our big deck this year until I figure out the best spots.
cooky 2 years, 8 months ago said:
RE: What's in Your Garden?
I have a raised bed organic garden. I always grow several kinds of tomatoes to eat fresh and can, and like to have a couple varieties of cherry tomatoes too. I'll grow a plot of peppers - red bell, mild banana, and a slightly hotter variety as well. I have one plot of herbs - which always gets away from me; I never keep up with it but swear every year I'll do better! I usually grow squash or zucchini, but think I might instead plant two plots of green beans this year to eat fresh and freeze. I love roasted vegetables, and while frozen green beens are usually not very good, they are absolutely delicious roasted! By the way, all the peppers do wonderfully chopped and frozen, all ready to throw into the roasting pan. I always grow cucumbers and make pickles using Mrs. Wages spices for dill pickles. Last year I used her Bread and Butter spices to make relish using cucumbers and the slightly hot peppers. It was a wonderful spicy sweet combo!
chefcarolyn 2 years, 8 months ago said:
In my garden
This will be my first garden - Bell peppers, cucumber lemons, spinach, mesclun, tomatoes (I want to try several varieties), Asparagus peas and a lot of herbs. I am quite excited but scared at the same time!
farmerdan 2 years, 8 months ago said:
MY GARDEN
I have just started a herb garden and so far have rosemary, thyme, oregano, dill, and will be adding more when I get to the nursery.
tpatti 2 years, 7 months ago said:
RE: What's in Your Garden?
Hi, I just joined your group. Hope that is okay. I planted all my flower beds yesterday along with some leaf lettuce. I purchased some basil, rosemary, sweet 100 cherry tomato plants, some Beefsteak tomato plants, some Brandywine plants (my favorite heirloom), some lettuce seeds, two zucchini plants and right now I can't remember the rest. I am a little sore after yesterdays plantings, so I will plant my vegetable garden the beginning of next week. I love this time of year. I also enjoyed reading what others had planted. I almost forgot I have chives that come up every year, gotta love that.
dancegypsy67 2 years, 7 months ago said:
RE: What's in Your Garden?
We still have a couple of weeks before our last frost date, so nothing's out yet (if only I had stayed in town this past weekend to get lettuce and spinach in the ground...), but I have shallots, runner beans, chard, patty pan squash, and carrots (seeds we saved from a 2nd year plant) to put out. I planted ginger mint last year and was afraid it might not come back...it's back with a vengance (I should have known)! I will definately be putting in nasturtiums again. I'd like to add lavendar and thyme this year too. Everything else will probably be impulse purchases from the farmers' market.
starzsway 2 years, 7 months ago said:
RE: What's in Your Garden?
this is my first year trying to grow my own veggies....but I have lots of pots, not a garden in the traditional sense....but I'm trying my hand at tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and carrots! everything's green, just hope it'll fruit! LOL
dancegypsy67 2 years, 7 months ago said:
RE: What's in Your Garden?
starzsway,
My neighbor has had lots of luck growing peppers, eggplant, carrots and potatoes in pots (tomatoes should do well too - she doesn't like them) and well as herbs. Hardest part is trying to keep up with the watering!
tpatti 2 years, 7 months ago said:
RE: What's in Your Garden?
Yeah! Today was the day, I planted my vegetable and herb garden. I checked the weather reports, hope they are accurate, looks like no chance of any more frost. Keeping my fingers crossed. I have a mystery tomato plant. I lost the tag, so I am not sure what variety it is, silly hubby said when it gets something on then you will know what it is?!? I guess you can tell he isn't a gardener, he didn't even know it was a tomato plant. I tried something new this year, put coffee grounds around my tomato plants, it is supposed to add nutrients and keep away tomato worms etc. Hope it doesn't harm the plants in any way. Anyone ever heard of this?
thepiggs 2 years, 7 months ago said:
tpatti
I won't go as far as to say the grounds add nutrients but coffee grounds are acidic and tomatoes enjoy a more acidic soil. Cotton bur compost does something similar, as does mulching with pine needles or oak leaves. Any of these will also add small amounts of compost back into the soil as they degrade so that is also a plus.
It's little tricks like these that help the soil and the plants.
thepiggs 2 years, 7 months ago said:
Another trick
We also save banan peels and very old bananas to put in the holes as we plant our tomatoes. These will have extra potassium in them, as well as other nutrients. Tomatoes give us potassium so any extra that can be added is good.
thepiggs 2 years, 7 months ago said:
fish...
Crappie and blue gill spawning (lots of fishing) coincides with tomato and pepper planting in our neck of the woods so the left overs from cleaning have always gone into the planting holes for tomatoes and peppers. If the Indians thought they were good and planted fish with their corn then we think they are also good enough for our garden. We dig large holes for each plant, add fresh compost and our extra additions before putting the plants in.
You might be surprised at the results, if you also try it.
Let nothing go to waste.
tpatti 2 years, 7 months ago said:
thepiggs
I too have a compost heap and add a shovel full to each hole I am digging for the plants. I usually have the biggest tomato plants around. I was devastated a few months ago when a neighbor was cleaning up and accidentally drug my compost heap away. Thank you for the tips, I am always looking for ideas for better gardening.
thepiggs 2 years, 7 months ago said:
Compost
We always add compost when digging holes, as this help enrich and lighten the soil. We started out with a terraced garden, with nothing but pure red, heavy clay soil. After several years we now have a much nicer soil. It's far from perfect but it's much better than it was. We buy bagged compost and also use our own, which just doesn't keep up with our demand for it. We dump our guinea pig cleanings in the compost pile or use it as mulch around nitrogen loving plants, such as squash and cucumbers (and corn). Most of it is wood shavings, which is really good as a mulch to keep weeds down and also hold moisture in the soil. GP cleanings are quite similar to rabbit, which means it's easy to use and won't burn the plants, unless it's pure poo. It you know someone who has guinea pigs or rabbits, be kind to them and offer to take their cleanings away for them! It's a shame to send something this good to the landfills.
If it's in your yard, keep it there! That is what we try to practice. A chipper/shredder will grind most anything up into a size that is easy to compost or mulch with. We keep barrels of mulch/compost and when one is ready, we just drag it to where we want to use it. We also keep a compost pile, which gets anything that we don't want to throw into the barrels, which is often.
All of this makes of delicious garden produce or flowers!
watkinsgal 2 years, 5 months ago said:
fish.....
Tried the fish remains when planting tomatoes....the raccoons dug up my tomatoes to get to the fish. Bummer! I try to compost chicken manure along w/ cedar shavings from the coop, but it seem to take forever to compost. Any suggestions? I add coffee grounds and other "greens" from the garden...probably not enough to offset the chicken manure...maybe???
Weeds are what is mostly in my garden this summer.... Along w/ tomatoes, peppers, turnips, carrots, beets, cabbage, cucumbers, swiss chard, zucchini, yellow squash....onions are drying in the sun, spinach and lettuce has bolted...it needs to go to the chickens. Green beans are doing ok, but my fall planting always does better.
Nothing but leaves on the fruit trees this year. Northern Missouri was hit by a hard freeze in April. No cherries, pears or apples this year. :o(
thepiggs 2 years, 5 months ago said:
No fruit
Yes, I know about the hard freeze, as my peach and mulberry trees are fruitless this year. It didn't stop the neighbor's walnut tree from producing though, and now the walnuts are dropping early, at the edge of our garden. grrrrr
My tomatoes are doing well, as are the cucumbers. My dill is just about ready to harvest, tomatoes are beginning to ripen, peppers are setting on and the cucumbers are just setting fruit. Pretty soon I will have give-aways!
We would cut up our fish and bury them deep to keep the coons out. Dogs are also good at digging them up OR keeping the coons away.
Hope your harvest is good.
divaliscious 1 year, 10 months ago said:
What's in your garden...
Everyone here's gardens sound great 'cept for a few raccoon pests here and there...how are those fruit trees doing now?
Since moving I have the fun part of designing and doing my garden (once again) from scratch. It simply kills me not being able to bring some of my hard work (think plants) to my new place as this has happened to me three times already. It makes me start to think of finding a place that I can stay for 20 years - lol. Though I did bring with me many of the seeds where I could.
I'll be creating a roof top container garden and taking an empty plot next to me building (I live in a small city) and turning it into something green. I have high hopes, but will start simple leaving most of the roof top gardening for herbs for easy access and some veggies while creating a care-free flower garden (some edible) in the empty plot....
evegpt 1 year, 9 months ago said:
RE: What's in Your Garden?
I am doing the square foot gardening method this year. Years ago when I had three gardens going,,,,I used the Ruth Stout method...It was great..no weeds ever....if I still had the energy to throw that hay around I would still be doing it. I will mulch my square foot garden with hay though. Just tuck it around the plants when they get up and running.
So far, I have planted carrots, radishes, lettuce, peas and onions plus pots of rosemary, spearmint, lemon balm, lemon thyme, chives and I put out some arugula plants so I can have lettuce before the ones I planted from seed start producing.
I hope to get my tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and beans in the ground after the 20th..I don't want to have to cover things up in case we have a late frost.
evegpt 1 year, 9 months ago said:
RE: What's in Your Garden?
Just went back out today and planted broccoli and cabbage and some shallots. My radishes are all ready up in five days, and I think I saw the lettuce peeking up a little. With square foot gardening, you harvest and replant all the time,,,,intensive planting and staggered so you don't get a lot of anything at one time. I have been known to plant way too many squash and eggplant...but squash is my favorite veggie, so I try to eat all I can and give the rest away...it doesn't freeze well for me.