Creating a Garden

[featherlady_jt]

2nd and last post for today. How many of you grow your own veggies? I started small last year and am still very much a N00b. Between the ever-soaring cost of living and heightened awareness of just how much CRAP is in and on commercial produce, I decided I really want to make a go of it this year, and so with pickaxe and gravel rake, I've been

Comments

[shockwave77598]

I've already been warned that I'm going to have a ton of tomatoes to eat. We need to come up with a way to can them and can spagetti sauce and the like.

I love fresh off the vine cucumbers and squash. The squash is particularly good when sliced and grilled with balsamic vinegar added to it, like on a shish ka bob.

[featherlady_jt]

Oh I envy you! Cherry tomatoes do alright here, if grown in pots, but tomato production in general in the PNW is feeble at best. What I'd give for a greenhouse! On the flipside though, snap peas grow like crazy here. :)

[featherlady_jt]

Great tip with the balsamic vinegar too - we'll have to try that. :)

[keesh]

I'm starting this year, I leased a 1/2 acre. If I can muster, chickens and maybe a goat too! :-)

I'll have to put you e-mail alert. ;-)

[featherlady_jt]

Oh cool! I'll look forward to following your progress.
If my husband changes jobs, then we'll be able to keep chickens. We have room enough, but he runs transportation at an egg farm so keeping birds of any kind right now is out. ;-/

[featherlady_jt]

ugh - drought! I've got the opposite problem, mostly cool and wet, which leaves a big problem for powdery mildew. I'm looking into organic solutions for that though, such as milk and baking soda. I want tomatoes too, but last year mine got hit really hard with blight. Too much rain. :-/

[cissa]

We've been growing the toms in Earth Boxes or similar- they're big self-watering planters that you can fill once a day and they wick up the moisture from the reservoir. That helps lower the amount of water needed.

When I was growing them in-ground, I'd get some of the watering spikes that fit onto 2-liter soda bottles and stick those next to the plants- then the water in the bottle gradually leaches out right by the roots.

[featherlady_jt]

I grew French Breakfast radishes last year, a lot of them... turns out I'm the only one who likes radishes so I let a lot of them bolt and flower. Lo and behold, radish flowers were a bee and butterfly magnet! I may grow more of those this year purely for the helpful-insect attraction. ;-)

Thanks for the salsify information. I think I saw seeds for those, probably Ed Hume Seeds. I've got little bitty artichoke starts in pots, they're really slow to grow so far, but then we haven't yet had much in the way of warm weather!

[cissa]

Ooo! I didnt' know that radish blossoms are loved by bees and butterflies! I may need to grow some for that!

If people in your house like turnips at all- cooked radishes are very, very similar. I know we don't think of cooking them usually, but they're really tasty braised in some butter. :)

[featherlady_jt]

To be honest, it never occurred to me to cook them! Thanks, I'll give that a go!

[spiffystuff]

I tried to grow veggies... critters ate them. ALL OF THEM. Critters even tore through chickenwire to get to them!
Tis the price of living with possoms and raccoons I guess.
The only edible thing that survives to harvest in my place is berries :P

I hope your luck is better than mine!