Post by simplynaturalfarm on Feb 14, 2011 17:05:06 GMT -5
I never have much success with onions and spend more on the seed/bulb than I could eat of onions in a year - but are onions safe to get from the store ?? Do they get sprayed and such? I can buy a 50lb sack for $8 some times of the year.
Potatoes - we are surrounded by them and can get them by the pickup for free. But I watch the aerial sprayers going over them 3x a year and they are sprayed so often for everything that I hate getting them. . . plus they don't taste like homegrown for some reason - must be the horribly depleted soil.
I can get tons of squash from relatives so don't know why I bother growing them.
Tomatoes are a must. Peppers, beans, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli (we do not have access to things like you guys), although I gave up on melons and those this year because they never grow and use a lot of the garden. Cucumbers are a must, dill, and I just so happen to adore zucchini, but hate getting given them because they are the size of baseball bats instead of 6-10inches like what I like for tender frying.
We eat very few carrots, but seriously they are so delicious homegrown and for some reason mine always taste better than anybody elses, even when I'm given them from neighbors.
And I like to pickle them. I did not get enough beets to do anything with last year, but we would eat them every day and they are hard to find often. We had record rain last year and everything got drowned week after week which is why I can't really blame myself for the poor garden.
I would love some clumps of chives, and we like green onions, lettuces, spinach etc.
It doesn't take as much room as you would think unless you want to rototill between everything and then it is possible to require massive garden space LOL. I try to do square foot as much as I can (too close and things don't grow because of not enough sunlight here), beds, not walking in the plants just the paths (DH always tromps on everything and I just seethe when he steps in the garden, walking down the middle of my freshly weeded tomatoes, sinking 4 inches in the fluffy soil and making it go hard as a rock!!) No matter how many times I tell him not to do so, he never knows he is doing it, so I will just fence around it and have a locked gate. We had major dog and rabbit problems last year - dogs who liked walking on the raised beds to avoid the water, and then them chasing rabbits out . . . - plus the horse got at the cruciferous veggies just as they were ready to eat and ate 40 heads . . Could have cried.
Turnips never grow but I hate them, and don't know why I don't just buy DH his token one meal worth.
Brussel sprouts grew like mad, but I only like a couple meals per year so will buy them. . .
What am I missing?
Just to make my heart feel light about gardening (and remind myself that I used to have a nice garden), here is the one from the farm
here is one inside the underground greenhouse (can't do that here as our water table is 18 inches)
I don't mow any more to get those lovely clippings for mulching, and straw is not as nice, but my BIL offered to lend me his chopper and maybe I could chop the straw for nicer mulch. . .
Heather
Potatoes - we are surrounded by them and can get them by the pickup for free. But I watch the aerial sprayers going over them 3x a year and they are sprayed so often for everything that I hate getting them. . . plus they don't taste like homegrown for some reason - must be the horribly depleted soil.
I can get tons of squash from relatives so don't know why I bother growing them.
Tomatoes are a must. Peppers, beans, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli (we do not have access to things like you guys), although I gave up on melons and those this year because they never grow and use a lot of the garden. Cucumbers are a must, dill, and I just so happen to adore zucchini, but hate getting given them because they are the size of baseball bats instead of 6-10inches like what I like for tender frying.
We eat very few carrots, but seriously they are so delicious homegrown and for some reason mine always taste better than anybody elses, even when I'm given them from neighbors.
And I like to pickle them. I did not get enough beets to do anything with last year, but we would eat them every day and they are hard to find often. We had record rain last year and everything got drowned week after week which is why I can't really blame myself for the poor garden. I would love some clumps of chives, and we like green onions, lettuces, spinach etc.
It doesn't take as much room as you would think unless you want to rototill between everything and then it is possible to require massive garden space LOL. I try to do square foot as much as I can (too close and things don't grow because of not enough sunlight here), beds, not walking in the plants just the paths (DH always tromps on everything and I just seethe when he steps in the garden, walking down the middle of my freshly weeded tomatoes, sinking 4 inches in the fluffy soil and making it go hard as a rock!!) No matter how many times I tell him not to do so, he never knows he is doing it, so I will just fence around it and have a locked gate. We had major dog and rabbit problems last year - dogs who liked walking on the raised beds to avoid the water, and then them chasing rabbits out . . . - plus the horse got at the cruciferous veggies just as they were ready to eat and ate 40 heads . . Could have cried.
Turnips never grow but I hate them, and don't know why I don't just buy DH his token one meal worth.
Brussel sprouts grew like mad, but I only like a couple meals per year so will buy them. . .
What am I missing?
Just to make my heart feel light about gardening (and remind myself that I used to have a nice garden), here is the one from the farm
here is one inside the underground greenhouse (can't do that here as our water table is 18 inches)
I don't mow any more to get those lovely clippings for mulching, and straw is not as nice, but my BIL offered to lend me his chopper and maybe I could chop the straw for nicer mulch. . .
Heather
. A lot of sweat and blood went into that thing as it wasn't finished til November when it was decently cold. It gave us a 3 month head start in the spring and Mom was in greenhouse heaven - she had a lovely system of blankets strung at ground level that she just pulled across at night that kept the heat in. In the middle of winter we would go in there and read and just enjoy life.
