"Unofficial" Garden Thread

[garager]

Last year, I increased my garden to twice the size. I am going to do it again. After giving it lots of thoughts, I'm going for it. It takes a lot of work, to get your garden just right, plus the nuisance from deer and rabbits and the ever so popular, bugs......

This years crop, will be........

Peas
Tomatoes (Yellow, Grapes, Cherry, and Roma)
Broccoli (tough to grow here, but I'll try again)
Cauliflower
String Beans
Strawberries
Peppers (Bells and Chili)
Carrots
Potatoes
Raspberries (we started those 3 yrs ago and got about a quart last year)
Corn
Cucumbers
Celery
And of course, many Herbs
We also, got 3 plum trees to start growing, in the past month-month and a half. They are now about 3" tall.....

Anybody else going to grow your own food? We also enter some of our nice looking veggies into the local county fair, the kids are into that.....

[mrs. westcoast]

I wish we do..

I can see my COSTCO MEMBERSHIP cancelled allready.

[HVAC HAWK]

when we moved to PA 18yrs ago we had a very big garden and over the yrs it got smaller and smaller .so over the last 8 yrs no garden ,we have a lot of road side stands here wit cheep home grown veggies. so no more pulling weeds :cool:

[Josh]

My dad is hard core into gardening. Absolutely love the jalepenos and banana peppers he grows.

www.mvseeds.com is his favorite bulk seeds site. Hes is dying to get out there and start planting.

[TOPDAWG]

garager, how long is your growing season in Minnesota? I used to plant a garden but found i did not have enough time for the upkeep. Now I am switching to fruit trees, No weeding only pruning and spraying!!!

[garager]

Our growing season is about a month less then yours, I see your in Ohio. The main reason, our ground is still frozen solid longer then yours at spring time. Went out to my garden yesterday, no snow on top finally, and jabbed a shovel into it. Didn't make it far, about 1 1/2" :D, yep still frozen solid. I have a warm front porch, so we try to start some of of gardening in here, then replant when its the right time, this helps us with a longer growing season. But of course I'm limited to space, being in a front porch, but we can still get quite a few plants started a tad bit earlier.

Hey Josh, thanks for the heads up on that seed site, I'll be checking them out, later on when I find 20 minutes..... :cool:

[KenM]

We are big garderers. I put the sweet corn and red onions in the ground last Friday, along with a Spring 'salad patch'.
Yum, can't wait.
ken

[Gene Bickford]

We tried a garden twice and both times it was wiped out buy some crazy worm looking thing. Sent samples to the state and collage and both times it could not be ID. ???

[Adenn1]

If I could talk my wife into it, my whole side yard (5000 sq ft.) would be my garden. I have a couple of beds and grow the following:

12 different heirloom tomatoes
12 sweet and hot peppers
3 varities of pole beans
3 varities of cukes
3 varities of snow and snap peas
1 zucchini plant

Now that my 4 year old son is interested in gardening...we got mom to okay switching a flower bed to a garden bed for the boy. He wants to grow three types of bush beans...a green fillet bean, a yellow wax and a purple bush bean. Also wants some carrots and radishes.

I got into heirloom tomaotes about five years ago and am an active seed collector. I have about 100 different heirloom varities that I've collected through purchases and trades with other gardners.

A great place to read about tomatoes and other vegies is

http://www.tomatoville.com/

You have to register...but it is probably the best source on line for information.

Gardening is a big stress reliver for me. I was able to get into the garden this week and plant my snap and snow peas. Now, we are having all sorts of rain...so I hope I don't have to replant.

[Big Dog]

Garager,
Y'all don't grow okra up there?
Reason I ask is that my granddaughter just moved up to the Appleton (?) area from central Texas. She loves fried okra!!! We'll be coming up there in the summer, so I might have to bring her some.
BTW, when are county fairs usually held in your area? I think it'd be cool to meet some local folks while we're up there.
It's time to plant here, the mesquite trees are starting to put on leaves

[VASandy]

The only thing I'm putting in this year is about 6 okra plants in a friend's garden. We don't have enough room here at the house to put in much of anything. I LOOOOOOOOOOVE fried okra and okra pickles!!! For some reason, even with all the local growers and farmer's markets, there's never fresh okra around. I'll fix that this year!! :D

Dad's the gardener in the family though. He's got 2 gardens that produce tomatoes in the thousands and the best veggies in the world! He already has the potatoes in the ground and probably has the peas started, I'd imagine. I know the tom's are probably getting ready too. There's also an herb part of the garden that is a neat place to wander. I saw earlier this year he has some herbs set aside from last year and has some new ones started. Should be a good year. :)

[wwsmith]

The wife and I have a small garden in our front yard (about 100 sq ft). We started our first one last year rather late after we settled in so didn't produce much. We plan
to start indoors this year and transplant outside accordingly when the ground is ready, assuming we get the timing right. Woke up to snow this morning so it will be a bit yet. We are going simple with some yellow & green onions, carrots, radish and maybe a few stalks of corn. For some reason finding strawberry seeds seems rather difficult, but will do some of those as well.

[garager]

Garager,
Y'all don't grow okra up there?
Reason I ask is that my granddaughter just moved up to the Appleton (?) area from central Texas. She loves fried okra!!! We'll be coming up there in the summer, so I might have to bring her some.
BTW, when are county fairs usually held in your area? I think it'd be cool to meet some local folks while we're up there.
It's time to plant here, the mesquite trees are starting to put on leaves

Big Dog, Appleton is about 200 miles south of me, which makes a big difference in gardening. I do know of a few people who grow okra, but we are limited in our growing season vs most other places in the US. Our ground will still be frozen until mid-late March, then it starts to freeze in early-mid Sept. Some day I'll build that huge green house out of plastic and glass, until then, I gotta deal with the weather. Your granddaughter, should be able to grow okra down there, but it could be that your okra she likes the best, if you know what I mean.

I should also add, that I live right next to Lake Superior. This means our weather is cooler all summer long. Gardens like warmer weather, in which they do better in. So once again, this slows down my growing in the garden. We might actually get 20-30 days in the summer, which will hit 80 degrees. But if you get 5 miles away from our lake, it warms up quite nicely.

[Woussko]

I wish I had time and place for a nice garden but I don't. I'm lucky there is the farmers market and some pretty good roadside stands I can buy from. What's sold in the big markets is pretty sad.

[Big Dog]

Garager,
It's cool to visit with you about gardens and weather. You talk about 20-30 days that you might hit 80 degrees....we might have that many days in the summer when our overnight low might be 80 degrees!
We're going to plant some cantaloupe, squash, okra, tomatoes, and peppers this year. probably try some peas, beans, and peppers, too.

[garager]

Garager,
It's cool to visit with you about gardens and weather. You talk about 20-30 days that you might hit 80 degrees....we might have that many days in the summer when our overnight low might be 80 degrees!
We're going to plant some cantaloupe, squash, okra, tomatoes, and peppers this year. probably try some peas, beans, and peppers, too.

Cantaloupe, thats what I want to grow. Thanks for mentioning this, maybe it would have dawned on me later. Yep, I'm going to grow me some.

Ya its cool talking to someone on the southern side of the states. I used to live in Dallas and Houston, back in 80-81. I was just learning how to build homes back then, big homes at that. To dang hot for me, I like where I live right now.

I'm sure when I hit my 60's, I'll probably want to go south. But it sure would be nice of you to send some of that heat towards the north, I'm gettin' spring fever.... :D

[plumberscrack]

I planted horseradish someone gave me last year. I did nothing but yet it grew like crazy. Nothing like fresh horseradish on your meat :)

We also have a Bartlett Pair tree (pyrus communis, painintheassforus) in the back yard. Previous owners had planted. The squirrels pillage every single pair long before they get ripe. They take 2 bites and throw them to the ground where the yellow jackets take over :eek:

Ok thats not really a garden thing I just wanted to fume about squirrels:rant-on:

[Aaron91]

Bill, you need one of these to help with your frustration.

http://www.airgundepot.com/880.html

[plumberscrack]

LOL Aaron,

a $46 dollar BB gun?

are you kidding me?

I would be outgunned by the squirrels here :p

[garager]

LOL Aaron,

a $46 dollar BB gun?

are you kidding me?

I would be outgunned by the squirrels here :p

Man the pears are going for almost a buck each, I would certainly do something about that scene. Come on Bill, get that rocking chair out and a beer next to you, and a high power air gun, then at night, a bowl of anti freeze can get the ones that you don't. As we get older, we need our sleep, eh....:D :D

[Pipestone Kid]

Garager, Take a look at Harbor Freight's web site. We picked up one of their greenhouses last year. Now the "boss" is in hog heaven. All aluminum with plastic insulating panels.
Jim

[garager]

I just got their recent catalog, so I'll do that. I think they may have opened up a store in Duluth, I'll have to research that also. So how does your green house stand up to the winds? You know, some day we need to get a cup of coffee, I know I'll be heading up your way, to play golf this summer. When I do, I'll PM you and we can go from there, sounds good???? :)

[Pipestone Kid]

I just got their recent catalog, so I'll do that. I think they may have opened up a store in Duluth, I'll have to research that also. So how does your green house stand up to the winds? You know, some day we need to get a cup of coffee, I know I'll be heading up your way, to play golf this summer. When I do, I'll PM you and we can go from there, sounds good???? :)

Sounds great!! By the way, I haven't heard--How did the "quit smoking" go?:party-on:

[garager]

6 months 21 days free, I still have a craving for one from time to time. But I'd have to say, I beat them. Thanks for asking...

[canucksartech]

6 months 21 days free, I still have a craving for one from time to time. But I'd have to say, I beat them. Thanks for asking...

Kudos to you on that, Garager. If the craving kicks in every once and a while, use the Nicorette gum to help you through it - don't go back to the death sticks. I quit smoking myself August 15, 2002, after smoking at least a pack a day for about 10 or 11 years. Only had maybe 3 cigarettes since then (one of those "remembering old times" things), and not once have I desired to start up again. I do smoke a good Cuban cigar every once and a while (at the odd golf tourney, boys' night, BBQ party, etc.), but it's more of a pleasurable taste thing than an addiction/inhalation thing for me with those. Yes, it seems like an oxy-moron (or as my wife the nurse says, "thinking like a moron"), but they're one of my last vices. After golf. And rum. And nookie. And fishing. And rum. And of course tools. :cool:

But kudos and congrats to you on that garager. Takes a lot of iron will to stick with it with quiting cigarettes. You'll be better for it in the long haul. Keep with it, buddy.

[AFM]

I don`t like gardening as I do enough digging in plumber.

Tony:rotflmao1: