If you haven't already done so, start a garden...

[Javaman]

or start a container garden.

You will be thankful for it.

[Brickbat]

1. Oh, alrighty then.

[Ian David]

2. I kill a whole bunch of plants every year. Sometimes, I get a couple cherry tomatoes. n/t

[northoftheborder]

3. Being optimistic in the middle of a drought with my tomatoes & herbs

[drm604]

5. I used to have great success with tomatoes.

The last couple of years, almost nothing. :shrug:

[blueamy66]

29. Our plants are growing like crazy.

My guy planted too many in the raised garden. We're gonna have to buy a few more of those metal thingies to guide them....don't know what they're called. :-)

[Le Taz Hot]

32. Tomato cages.

;-) I meant what you knew.

[blueamy66]

37. thanks

:-)

[meow mix]

9. me too lol, rough conditions up here

=(

[GoCubsGo]

25. My plants survive.

They just don't produce. I live on a wooded lot. Hard to grow much of anything in the shade. I grow a few tomatoes in containers, and usually they grow all over the place. But, the don't set many fruits. Last year, I got loads of flowers, but the nights were too warm to set fruit much of the time.

[ejpoeta]

4. have been for a few years now. just put up a fence this past weekend to protect it from

the woodland creatures. had no strawberries last year. just got two more fruit trees and two more blueberry bushes. can't wait to learn how to propagate so we can get our own instead of having to buy them. and hoping our garden does better this year than last year. we are novices learning as we go. each year we have had better results than the last. crossing my fingers!!

[shraby]

6. We still have snow on the ground and it's still frozen about

a foot deep yet. Planting time here is mid to late May.

[Javaman]

8. Check out cold frame gardens...

it's a bit of work but it might help you start your season a bit earlier...

From my blog...

http://suburbandweller.blogspot.com/2010/10/brrrris-it-bald-in-here-or-is-it-just.html

[shraby]

22. Come planting time we dig up a big garden for ourselves and

a space about 3 times as large for 4 other families to grow stuff in. We divide theirs equally among the 4. They are Hmong families and they grow a good share of their stuff for the farmers market. We don't charge them anything for the spaces. They might as well put it to good use.
Saves us having to mow it.

[Lyric]

7. I have a garden. I'm sure my radioactive tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers

will be delicious.

*sigh*

[uppityperson]

11. They will probably taste better than the commercially produced radioactive veggies

[Lyric]

18. Somehow that is cold, cold comfort.

:(

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. they'll be HUGE this year

[nc4bo]

26. HA! So will the bugs that terrorize them too LOL nt

[PADemD]

35. I purchased a rain barrel two years ago to collect water for plants.

Last year, we had a drought; and this year, radioactive rain.

Just cannot win.

[IDemo]

10. I'm going to 're-invent' the raised beds this year

I've decided to give square foot gardening a try, since my gardening results have been fairly dismal otherwise.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=246x14154

[Le Taz Hot]

13. The key to my successful square foot garden

was to ignore the "Mel's Mix" stuff and just put in regular old Miracle Grow Potting Soil. Works great. Each successive plant I just mix in my home-made compost and more Potting Soil. I tried the "Mel's Mix" thing the first year. Not only was it almost impossible to find 5 different types of compost from commercial outlets (I didn't have my compost pile yet), it proved to be VERY expensive. Granted, the Miracle Grow was expensive too (initial cost only) but I've had excellent harvests ever since.

[IDemo]

14. I bought several bags of 'Kellog's Garden Soil' and one large bag of vermiculite

The video in my garden group link seemed to indicate that it would make a good substitute for MM.

[Le Taz Hot]

12. K & R

You don't have to have a lot of space -- I sure don't.

Square Foot Gardening:

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

Square Inch Gardening

http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/tips-for-the-square-inch-gardener-vertical-gardening-and-the-three-t%E2%80%99s/

[lynne]

20. Been Sq. Ft. gardening for about 12 or so years -

- and now can't imagine any other way. I've modified mine somewhat - some things I give a bit more room but not much - but everything I've done has been very successful, even corn. This year I'm going to apply Sq. Ft. principals to try to grow the "Three Sisters" - corn, squash and pole beans together. The beans run up the corn, the squash grows under everything keeping down weeds and conserves moisture.

I don't use any mix from the book, I just compost everything from year to year and add last year's compost to this years beds. After a few years my dirt is nice and dark.

I have moved tomato's and peppers as well as all herbs to my deck. Tomato's in huge tubs I get free from the local nursery. Love the look on the deck and I'm always there to pick what's ripe. Last year I did about 1/2 dozen corn stalks in a big tub just to have the vertical look on the deck and I loved it. Was shocked when I got a few ears of corn, too! Basil thrives - as does lettuce - in large planters. Window boxes on the deck hold creeping thyme, nasturtiums and a little chives.

New Rule = If I can't eat it, I don't plant it!

[Le Taz Hot]

31. The Three Sisters.

I just learned about that a few months ago. I wish I had the space to try this but I have to have a mesh cover over my SFG because the cats will happily use them as litter boxes given half a chance so I can't have anything too tall. (The trellises are attached outside the mesh.

What is the size of the tubs you use, particularly for the corn? I have 2-1/2 gallon, 3-gallon and 5-gallon. I'll have to try that freebie from the nursery thing as buying the big ones can get really expensive. I grow peppers, tomatoes and other, uh, herbs in pots pretty successfully. I expanded my pepper crop last year to include Anaheims and Banana peppers. Last year we hollowed them out, stuffed them with jalapeno cheese and put them on the grill. Highly recommended.

Thanks for posting. I love hooking up with other gardeners. :hi:

[crickets]

38. Out of curiosity, which varieties of corn

have you had the most success with and how much do you tend to plant? I'm considering giving it a try this year, and any hard won tips you'd care to pass along would be greatly appreciated.

[deaniac21]

15. Strawberries, Kentucky wonders, bell peppers, tomato, garlic,

habanero and onion on the way!

[distantearlywarning]

16. Already have my seeds started in some peat mix.

Basil, parsley, cilantro, green onions, yellow onions, tomatoes, yellow squash, cucumbers.

I would love to have a really big veggie garden, but unfortunately I live in a post-industrial city and I have a small urban yard - everything has to be done in raised containers (soil is very rich, but sketchy in terms of lead & other toxins), and I don't have that much room. But I grow what I can!

Last year we had so much squash and cucumber we literally couldn't eat it all. I made a squash recipe every other night + sometimes fried the blossoms and it was still coming out of our ears!

I would love to put in some potatoes too, and get 2-3 "city chickens" for eggs, but I really don't have enough room. We want to move to a bigger house next year, though, and one of my criteria is a yard big enough for my flowers, my vegetables, and a chicken house.

[robdogbucky]

17. I have had success with a raised bed garden the last two years

I only built one, 4 X 8, but man, you can pack a lot of crops in there. I use bird netting, mainly for the squirrels, which is amazing in its own right, as there is more than enough food of every kind for the animals that have lived on this property for generations. In that regard the only damage the squirrels manage to do is to tear down the finch birdfeeder socks I have (have to find a new branch to hang it from). The local crow contingent is always very interested in my choring out there and give constant comment as I go about tending the garden in the morning all summer long. I'm sure they don't appreciate that bird netting.

The first year I was marginally successful, but learned I do have to amend the soil, even if it is the best a landscape outlet can provide. I did that this winter by adding a bag of "Amend," recommended at the local hardware store and they have not steered me wrong yet. First year, great tomatoes/beans and peas. No squashes (!?) which was a surprise because in every other garden I had before the raised bed, those little suckers went nuts, but not in the raised bed for some reason. That is too bad as I have a killer lemon/zucchini soup that I like in the summer. I deduced that they don't do well in the bed, they only blossom and then any effort to grow little zucchinis die quickly before getting 5 inches long. So this year my change in tactic is to put my vine vegetables like squash, outside the bed in dirt I turned and amended and have already put some in. I also have been putting corn around the perimeter of the raised bed. I intend to put other crops in this newly tilled soil outside the bed, just to see what can be produced that won't interest the squirrels and birds and racoons too much. It will increase my work to do, but I think I will enjoy it if it pays off in some added, new crops. I will try strawberries and some melons outside the bed to go with the squash and corn.

Inside the raised bed last year I had a bonanza of tomatoes (5 varieties) with the little ones for salads most prolific. Had plenty to freeze for use all winter long, which we did a lot this holiday season. This year I have expanded my tomato plants to 7 varieties. I also have put in a lot of lettuce and peppers, as the lettuce was great last year so I am increasing what is successful and like the outside seek to improve the yield each year. I have had no success with onions or carrots and have only gotten little anemic looking excuses that I could not eat. It was suggested it was due to poor soil, hence the amendments over the winter this season.

I use mulch as well, give everything a Miracle-Grow shot every couple of weeks (this really made the difference last year) and religiously water and patrol for pests. The only pests I get have been horned tomato caterpillars, which have voracious appetites and can decimate a plant's fruit overnight. They are very alien-looking. I also have healthy populations of ladybugs and mantises in my yard and they love the garden, which I encourage. It seems that I get colonies of little ants that propagate their little livestocks of aphids, but they don't seem to be interested in what is growing in my soil.

I plant peas at each support strut for the netting and that is a natural climbing habitat for the peas and it provides a great look for my "jungle," once July rolls around and everything is going gangbusters. Last year some green beans were added late and they did quite well also liking to climb all around the netting.

I get so much joy from propagating this garden and then eating every single thing out of it. Along with the fig and apple trees, we are busy in the mid-summer putting things in the freezer for winter and it feels really satisfying to go out each day then and come back in the house with a bag of fresh veggies from my own garden every day. I make salads for my wife with these homegrown veggies and that is the best. Especially when homemade vinagrette dressing is used. Yummmm.

I do not know the impact of the burgeoning radiation problem coming our way from Japan, and I know radiation does not go away once it is in your body, it just accumulates over time. I have had some horrific visions of late about none of our water or air or soil being free from radioactive contamination, making ours a slow and uncomfortable death. Heaven help future generations that may have to deal with this problem. I see no way out of it, and the reactors are still spewing into the ocean and into the air. Now it will be spread even further than the winds take it when it is in the ocean's fish.

California, Ahhhhhh. Sunshine now for about the next 6 months straight.


Hands off my Social Security!
Hands off Latin America!


rdb

[Starry Messenger]

19. The window screens don't come out on my apt.

Makes it hard to put things on the fire escape.

[blueamy66]

21. have 4 raised bed gardens this year

We just finished building the last one this past Sunday.

I'm gonna have tomatoes, squash, eggplant, artichokes, jalapenos, red and green peppers, carrots, onions, lettuce and cukes.

We use regular gardening soil and add one bag of Miracle Grow, manure and compost.

We don't have any critters....just alot of sun!

[shanti]

24. already doing so

i plan to put in a raised bed garden next week, but already have a tomato and cuke plant in the ground now.

[progressoid]

27. That's what's happening this weekend!

Even though we have to fight the damn deer every year. :grr: They eat EVERYTHING!

[XemaSab]

28. I've got lettuce and beans in the ground now

and the neighbor boy is coming this weekend to dig up the rest of the garden for tomatoes and whatever else we decide to plant.

[jillan]

30. And Compost!! Make your own organic soil.

[Shagbark Hickory]

33. What are you saying? The radiation is coming?

[NotThisTime]

34. I can't garden, but I joined a vegetable CSA... glad to have it

[bobbolink]

36. Yes, sir. Right away, sir.

[Warren DeMontague]

39. been doing it for years. and composting.

the food tastes great, and it's very therapeutic- calming.

[JoePhilly]

40. My garden has tulips.