If you have a place to do it - I strongly recommend a garden. Even in CONTAINERS for chrissakezzz...

Tomatoes - $2.99 a pound in some places
PEPPERS - $4.99 in a lot of stores (various)

Think about the veggies you use a lot, and what a water bill really comes to. Can you afford NOT TO grow your own?

If you can - WILL YOU?

We should share advice to put food on all of our tables (DANG RIGHT)

I'm going to do a lot of corn this year because it is just plain great on the grill, how about you?



~Wolfie

 

I spent last Saturday tilling mom's garden. It's roughly 60x30.

Corn I can get free at work so we're not doing a ton of it, but I plan on putting in a bit at another location.

I know she's putting in eggplant, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, and peas.

I have to go back and till it all a few more times to get everything nice and loose as deep as I can get it and then I'll get her to plant everything so I can fit some sort of tiller between the rows to eliminate some weeds.

 

I'm counting on corn to tame the back of the garden - it will grow high and send roots deep! Johnson grass will have no chance growing in the middle of that.

I still wonder what pumpkin will do, but I want my PEPPER PLANTS BACK THIS YEAR!

Oh my God I do.... I love them to tears.

*Habernero
*Tabasco
*Long red Cayenne
*Bell (varied colors)
*Hungarian Hot Wax
*Anahiem Chili (stuffing peppers)

Etc....

 

I got in 10 tomato (better boy and parks whopper), squash, and jalapenos. 4 of the 6 bells i've got in 5-gallon buckets are making it, 2 died. all the habaneros, eggplant, cayennes (all from seed/peatpots) went belly up. Not to worry---i'm getting more tomorrow and I'll finish by getting replacements.

Tried things a little different this year. Some of it worked, some did not.

 

I have atleast 3500 sq feet of garden space this year. I wanted more but have to leave some space for the goats to graze.

 

I am learning to cook so I planted herbs. Dill, cilantro, parsley, chives etc and I have a totally amazing cat nip plant in my kitchen window.

 

I live in the city,no garden for me because I would be feeding the rabbits!! guess I could shoot the rabbits with my bb gun and then eat them,save on my meat bill also!!

 

I love growin' me some Collard greens and Black-eyed peas.

 

The wife planted 2 tomato and 2 blueberry plants today. Tonight I saw a wabbit hopping away from the same spot....gezzzzzzz. I may end up with wabbit stew .We feed the birds. we put out indian corn for the squirels,so I guess the wabbit thinks it his turn.

 

Its been a while since weve had a garden. When i was a kid, mom used to plant tomato, strawberries, peppers, eggplant and all sorts of others. We even tried to grow watermelon, but they never used to ripen correctly. My grandpa used to pick dandelions and make his own salads with them. He used to say that the best thing about those were that they are everywhere and free!

 

A couple more weeks before it's garden planting time here. Anything planted outside around here before Memorial Day usually just sits anyway. Last frost isn't until well into May most years. I've already tilled once and spread the compost I've had cooking for the last year. I'm expanding some this year now that I got the half-ton boulder out of the way.

This year I plan on doing some more corn since it worked really well last year, 10-12 tomato plants, some collards, some okra and maybe a row of carrots and radishes. If I have the room I'll put out some cauliflower. If this year is like the last five years I'll get a couple pumpkin plants that grow out of the compost heap - must be the seeds I throw in there in the fall. I let it take over the yard - the kids get a kick out of it.

As for paying the water bill, I use what comes naturally from the Good Lord - but, since He has an unpredictable watering schedule, I store a few hundred gallons from when it does rain to cover the real dry spells. Already have my tanks full from the rain we got last week.

 

I need to go get some habernero seeds, I'm fresh out. I did find I have some record variety watermelon seeds left - I'm going to drop a few of them in "collars" at the far end of the plot.

*Since a while back when I accidentally wacked one of my prize tobasco plants in mid season, I like to plant seeds or seedlings inside short PVC sleeves (COLLARS) to protect the bases of the plants when weeding. The ones I have now are cut off of about an eight inch drain line that was laying around as scrap. I think four or six inch would do just as well, they're about six inches long and the bottom two inches are buried around the plants.

 

There's a LOT more folks doing the garden thingee, Wolfie.....A LOT more.......

Part of me likes that regular Joes and Josephines are getting involved in the wonders of 'home-grown'.....And part of me doesn't like the competition at places like Lowes, Home Depot, or Norwood Garden Center!

 

I've gone back and forth over planting seeds - vice - seedlings. i don't think I'm ever going to plant seeds indoors again, because too many fail when they are moved outside.

Seedling do well, but the whole idea is get a lot going for as little as possible. Flats of seedlings can add up quick. I once had over fifty bucks in store-bought sprouts set out, and the attrition to them was appalling!

Corn now - that ought to be a perfect choice for my area. I swear you can plant corn with a pea-shooter and not mess up

 

I have a black thumb, and am not home enough anyway, but we just bought a freezer and the Mr wants to raise some livestock. 3 calves, sell two and keep one pays for itself. You guys bring the corn and salad and I'll bring the steaks!