Vegetable Growing

[Saponista]

We just moved to a new house which was really stressful but it’s an old farmhouse in the countryside and I get to have a big vegetable patch now. I have cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, climbing beans, peas, squash, courgette, cabbage, kale, kohl rabi and beetroot going so far. Does anyone else grow their own food? What are your favourites?

 

[dibbles]

I love your house!! My hubby is our gardener, so we do have fresh herbs and veggies. If it were up to me, we'd have a couple of tomato plants. We have tomatoes for summer eating and I stew and freeze what we can't eat, cherry tomatoes for salads, and roma tomatoes for a roasted tomato-basil soup recipe I love. "We" also grow squash, 2 kinds of beans, bell peppers, cucumbers, asparagus, fingerling potatoes, rhubarb and raspberries. This year we are trying out a couple of eggplants for the first time. Herbs are oregano, basil, rosemary and chives.

 

[earlene]

I love your vegetable patch, Saponista! Congratulations on your fabulous new home.

Although my husband built me two good sized raised garden beds several years ago, I don't grow my own veggies anymore. I did for the first few years, but the growing season here is so very short and I am away so very much, it just wasn't working out very well.

When we lived in our last home in California, with a fabulously long growing season, I had a pretty good sized garden all to myself, about the size of a standard housing lot or as I liked to call it, my garden farm. I grew every kind of veggie I could manage in that climate zone, which were many. I loved cooking with squash blossoms, so I grew lots of different squashes. I loved fresh greens, so I grew spinach, lettuce, kale, mustard, arugula, and whatnot. I grew onions and artichokes and beets and carrots and various beans. My granddaughter even had her own garden patch (fenced off for her with a sign we made especially for her garden) where she chose her own plants and tended them whenever she visited, which was frequently.

I miss that long growing season and temperate climate. Of course I did spend about 8 hours per day in my garden, what with digging, planting, weeding (no insecticides for me), harvesting, washing (I had an outdoor washing station for my veggies), and just all around climbing up and down the hillside. My garden was on a hillside, and it was a lovely setting. If we still had that garden, though, I would not be traveling as much as I do, or I'd just have to let the poison oak take it over and kill the veggies. That's part of what required so many hours per day to maintain my lovely garden. I had to fight the poison oak that wanted to take over the countryside.

 

[NsMar42111]

I'm in Florida, my growing season is in weeks due to the heat and bugs. So far the only thing that survived this far is...broccoli! I was suprised. The bok choy greens types do the best until the bugs move in. My "guest" cherry tomatoes (darn squirrels) went about 100 tomoatoes each before wilting, although a new one appeared in another pot so I'll let it grow there. Onions and garlic do survive here but I didn't plant any this year (oops). My sunflowers looked cool for a few weeks, but were a lot of work for weeding (I read that weeds don't survive aorund them, I did not find that to be true). I would LOVE to grow my own food! Tried hydroponics for a while, gave up after some unknown insect ate all of my 4-6 foot pepper/tomatoe plants overnight once. I still have the equipment so I may try that again...

 

[Misschief]

We're very lucky here. The Okanagan is a fantastic agricultural area. We're also lucky that our landlord has an extra, empty lot with a garden, if we want to use it. All that said, my husband's job is gardening/landscape maintenance at our local college. After eight or more hours of looking after the college, the last thing he wants to do is more gardening. I love the idea of gardening but don't really care for the actual job of gardening. That said, I do have herbs -- sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary, a bay tree, lovage, mint (2 kinds), and more. We also have a couple of varieties of tomatoes in pots, mostly for the grandkids to nibble on and for salads.

Around the yard, the landlord and previous tenants have planted grapes, raspberries, and strawberries. They're available for any of the tenants (4 suites in our building) to pick if they're so inclined.

Here in the Okanagan, there's so much produce available most of the year that it really isn't worth it for us to put in the work of a garden. Right now, the cherries are coming on strong; apricots are coming shortly, peas, corn... the list is almost endless. Later, the peaches, apples, pears, vegetables of ALL kinds... and they're not that expensive, really.

 

[Saponista]

I love seeing other people’s gardens. Would love to see some more pics!

 

[IrishLass]

Your new home and garden are lovely, Saponista! Congratulations on both!

I have very limited space in my yard for a traditional veggie garden (the pool and our 2 orange trees pretty much take up all the space), but I was able to find a wonderful solution with an aeroponic contraption that my sister happens to sell called a Tower Garden (I wrote all about it here ) .

Anyway, it's packed away in hibernation at the moment until August. That's when I'll be setting it up again for the next growing season. I live in the southwestern US in a perpetually sunny, desert climate where I'm able to grow veggies in my Tower from August all the way through the fall, winter, spring, and up until June when I dismantle it and pack it away. I could actually keep it going all year round if I were so inclined, but our summers are so brutally hot here that it's just not worth the extra effort for me to keep it running throughout the height of them.

I can grow pretty much anything in my Tower except for trees of course, root vegetables, corn, grapes and certain types of berries. The things I've regularly been growing in it are tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, basil, cilantro, strawberries, celery, mint, collard greens, lettuce, kale, chard, bok choy, stevia, and various other leafy greens and herbs.

I'll be starting seeds here soon for my August planting. I'm exited to get things going again!


IrishLass

 

[shunt2011]

Love your house and garden. Beautiful!

 

[Saponista]

Ooooh the stevia is interesting, do you make a sugar substitute with it? Wonder if it’s hot enough for me to try! Your tower garden sounds really interesting!

 

[amd]

Chris and I both had gardens before we got married and moved (or moved and married as that was the actual order of events). At my old house I had blueberry bushes, several types of mint, cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, garlic, one year I tried lettuce with no success, and I grew one watermelon. Chris' garden was mostly salsa and strawberries, although one year he planted pumpkins... but they were decorative not eating kind, lol.

Last summer we didn't plant anything at the new house, although it did come with a huge raspberry patch. This summer we couldn't agree where to put the garden (he wants to dig up one of the flower beds, I want to dig up the middle of the yard), so we have a cherry tomato and a beefsteak tomato planted in 5 gallon buckets. I had garlic planted in a bucket, but the dang neighborhood squirrel dug them all up. We did just buy two blueberry plants because Chris decided he didn't want to mess with transplanting the bushes from my old house, so those are going in the ground the end of this week when we do the landscaping on that side of the house.

 

[Alfa_Lazcares]

I dont have a yard but i have space on my roof, so I have my plants there. They are all in pots (except for oir huge lemon tree, but that was planted by my grandma 40 something years ago). For my potted plata this year I tries cherry tomatos and they are going strong! Last year i had tomatillos. I also tried cucumbers but someone keeps eating the plans when they are too young (birds is my guess). I have rosemary, mint, basil, marjoram, alfalfa and hoja santa. I also have a small orange tree on a pot and two grapefruit trees that are just babies.
My guess is that this comes from two grandparents that enjoy gardening.

 

[Lin19687]

I have chickens and a wild bunny living in my yard
Therefore there is only the Flowers, Mints and Wormwood that are fenced off from the chickens. It was there before they were.
Meh, I at least have something Green

When I buy my own place I will have a garden and hope it is a pretty as all of yours are !

 

[Susie]

We just got moved into the house, but I am lobbying hard to get the garden bed in in time for fall planting (which should start in a month in my area). I just found the kitchen yesterday, though. And my hubby has not found his work shoes yet, so I am not holding my breath on getting the garden in on time. Might be easier to start some fall tomatoes and cucumbers in pots. I also have a hen house waiting for a run to be built before I can get some pullets.

 

[IrishLass]

Ooooh the stevia is interesting, do you make a sugar substitute with it? Wonder if it’s hot enough for me to try! Your tower garden sounds really interesting!

So far, I've only gotten as far as gradually harvesting the leaves and drying them, but my plan is to use my collection of dried leaves to try making my own stevia glycerite to sweeten my tea. I've tasted my leaves both fresh and dried and they are nicely sweet with a subtle hint of a licorice aftertaste.

I hear you can grow stevia in cooler climates as long as you make sure to bring it indoors before the first frost hits, and don't place it back outside until it warms up again.


IrishLass

 

[Relle]

The stevia plant I bought a few weeks ago said that it dies down now (winter) and comes back in summer again. My plant had it's leaves eaten by snails as we have had a lot of rain, so won't know if it's still ok. I think I'll just plant it in the vege patch and see how it goes.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Alas, our gardening days are pretty much over... too much work for us. So this thread is a treat -- to see what all you all are growing. (Drool) However, when my lavender in 3 whisky barrels outside my office window failed to make it through last winter, I dug it up and couldn't resist putting in a few seeds -- Sugar Babies watermelon in one; acorn squash in another one, and one determinate roma tomato plant in the third. I had chives coming up every year until this past one. That container is lying fallow. I've always had herbs growing, including chamomile, but they're all gone now except for a barrel of comfrey, which I'm in the process of digging out. We plan on putting shade-loving perennials in there.

 

[Relle]

I'd keep the comfrey as it's good for making a 'tea' to nourish the plants.
https://harvesttotable.com/how_to_make_comfrey_manure_tea/

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I'd keep the comfrey as it's good for making a 'tea' to nourish the plants.
https://harvesttotable.com/how_to_make_comfrey_manure_tea/

Interesting. Thanks for that link, Relle. I've had my "comfrey patch" for so long I can't even remember when I first started it. I haven't harvested and dried comfrey for a year now and, as with drying/storing all my other herbs, it's just more work than pleasure. I've become sucha lazy daisy... buying herbs at Monterey Bay Spice Company makes so much more sense to me at this time in my life.

 

[Lin19687]

Something ate ALL of the leaves on my Rhubarb. I'm ok with it as it never really gets very big. But it looks like a skeleton. Just the stalks and the veins of the leaves are still there .
I do have this next to the Pond that is blooming nicely but I have forgotten what it is.

 

[DeeAnna]

Lin -- the viney plant with fuschia flowers and maple-like leaves looks like cranesbill (aka hardy geranium.)

I have no idea what could eat rhubarb leaves and survive all that oxalic acid. Sounds like an insect the way you describe how the leaf ribs are left behind. Or maybe a cultural problem that's causing the leaves to slowly die?