Am I the only VJer with a garden?

[Amby 490]

We have a very large garden at the house and an even larger one at the cabins. Each year we all throw in like $20-40 to buy all the plants, seeds, etc. Then, we have a day where we plant everything. This past Monday was our day this year My uncles also started an "orchard" this year at our cabins. Obviously, it'll be awhile before that's really giving us much, but it's a great thing. I really enjoy gardening and care more about the quality/taste/freshness more than I do the cost. I love being able to just go outside and pick whatever I want.

Right now we have arugula, butter lettuce, romaine, spinach, turnips, and organo really going strong. Those were all things we planted earlier. I brought a bunch of lettuce in today for lunch. My only complaint about that was it rained really hard last night, so everything was splattered with mud. It took many many rinses to get everything off the lettuce.

Monday we planted...lots of herbs...basil, thyme, horseradish, opal basil, sage, parsley, rosemary, chives, garlic, shallots, some thing my little cousin picked up but not really sure what it is. Heirloom tomatoes...lots of varieties, wide variety of chilis and bell peppers, regular tomatoes were already planted, different types of squash, pumpkins, zucchini, okra, already had snow peas and green beans planted, okra, cucumber, leeks, eggplant (not sure about that because apparently it gets little black bugs on it really bad).

Berries we already have...gooseberry, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry. Lime tree that we keep inside and has only ever produced 3 limes in like 4yrs lol. Apple tree, 2 peach trees. Ughhhh...oh and we have bees

Don't really have any photos of the garden yet since everything was just planted, but I do have pics of my uncle with the bees!

[jundp 191]

In a manner of speaking. We have several different varieties of mint (chocolate & spearmint being my faves) and some other herbs: thyme, basil, rosemary, sage. We also have blackberries, 4 cherry trees (one Bing and 3 Rainier) and a plum tree.

At one point when I was growing up we had cows, chickens, pigs, goats, and a working farm. My grandfather also raised strawberries, okra, rhubarb, corn, tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkins, and a few other crops and sold them to the markets/groceries in the nearby towns. He was in VERY small-town Louisiana.

[Amby 490]

Danno I have a really good tip for you...never try to carpet your garden. My grandparents own a few carpet stores soooooo last year we had this genius (not so much) plan to put down carpet remnants in the garden at the cabins so we wouldn't have to pull so many weeds. Wellll...this year it has been a complete pain in the azz trying to pull all the carpet up for the garden to be tilled and stuff. Turned out to be a not so brilliant plan after all.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

He!! why grow it, when you got a farmers market?

[spookyturtle 9,466]

He!! why grow it, when you got a farmers market?

Do you spend your time squatting in the cucumber patch?

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I have a garden, compost my waste and recycle.

[HannahP 119]

Don't really have any photos of the garden yet since everything was just planted, but I do have pics of my uncle with the bees!

I wish my dad would harvest his honey! He only has the bees to help pollinate his fruit trees (he's starting an orchard, too, but nothing's mature yet).

Sadly, our conversations tend to go like:

Dad, why don't you harvest your honey?

Why don't YOU go out there and get the honey, hmmm?

/afraid of bees

[justucia 0]

We have grown a garden every year I've been here. We've processed tomatoes and beans, dried peppers and tomatoes, and frozen lots of tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, okra, and green beans. Last year we also planted watermelons and cucumbers - a single plant of cucumber yielded a bushel of cucumbers - the plant just went wild. We also got 12 personal watermelons and I lost count of the tomatoes, and zuccini and peppers. The okra grew so tall that I couldn't reach it without a ladder. We also grow herbs - lots of rosemary, oregano, sage, chives, thyme, stevia and mint. I have over 100 iris that I planted 4 years ago that have multiplied and need to be divided, and a colour co-ordinated front garden that has won us "Most Beautiful Yard of the Month" for the last 4 years. We also planted pear trees and harvested our first pears last year and have an apple tree that we hope will produce this year. We are late getting the garden in this year as it has rained most weekends when I needed to do some of the heavier weeding and roto-tilling so won't have any early crops like spinach, peas or lettuce as it is now too warm, but have the peppers, okra and eggplants ready to transplant. We will be trying the 40 gallon pails for the watermelon and the cucumber this year and placing them directly on a hill behind the house where they can spread out quite well without taking over our small garden space. There's lots more we have done as well but those are the highlights. So, I guess, yes, we garden and eat well from the produce. Oh, we also have an asparagus patch that my husband put in the year before I arrived so we have been able to harvest it the last 2 years.

oh i wish i was your neighbor

very nice! kudos!

[NickD 203]

Was wishing yesterday I was still living in the country where I could pull out my rifle and shoot two rabbits, would get arrested for doing that in the city, had a perfect shot.

Yes, we have a garden, but not for us, but for the rabbits.

AC didn't work in my Caddy, crawled under and the wires going to the AC clutch were chewed off, ironically, a black and a green wire. The rabbits didn't chew that black one, but did chew on the green one, so apparently they are not color blind. We also have problems using green Christmas Tree cords for our outdoor lights. They don't touch the white ones, but wife doesn't like white in our green fir trees.

The squirrels love to chew on the wood trim in my home, another PITA, slowly converting to plastic.

[Mary Lou 682]

We plant a small garden of tomatoes, peppers, beans, green onions, and cukes. Put in some strawberries this year, so hopefully they will work out.

[Bootylicious!! 2]

We have a pretty good garden this year. Last year was our first attempt at it and we got more veggies than we knew what to do with. This year we enlarged a little so we could plant more of a variety, plus we're sharing gardening duties with my parents. So far this year we have 3 types of beans, 3 types of corn, 5 types of squash, green onions, sweet onions, garlic, broccoli, pumpkins, watermelon, dill, cilantro, tomatillos, green and yellow peppers, jalepeno and serrano peppers, and cantaloupe. We still need to plant our tomotoes and sweet potatoes. I can't wait to see how things grow this year.

[almaty 19]

I have a garden, compost my waste and recycle.

same here..when we cut weeds and trim bushes plus old sunflower seeds are shells...we make a compost heap all year and spread it out in the spring and fall..

[Amby 490]

Don't really have any photos of the garden yet since everything was just planted, but I do have pics of my uncle with the bees!

I wish my dad would harvest his honey! He only has the bees to help pollinate his fruit trees (he's starting an orchard, too, but nothing's mature yet).

Sadly, our conversations tend to go like:

Dad, why don't you harvest your honey?

Why don't YOU go out there and get the honey, hmmm?

/afraid of bees

we bought the bees for pollination as well. we all had a really long discussion about who was going to put on the bee suit and do all the work. my uncle got the job because our best argument was "but you're a biologist" we're all 100% for harvesting the honey. can't wait until it's time!

[Amby 490]

We have a pretty good garden this year. Last year was our first attempt at it and we got more veggies than we knew what to do with. This year we enlarged a little so we could plant more of a variety, plus we're sharing gardening duties with my parents. So far this year we have 3 types of beans, 3 types of corn, 5 types of squash, green onions, sweet onions, garlic, broccoli, pumpkins, watermelon, dill, cilantro, tomatillos, green and yellow peppers, jalepeno and serrano peppers, and cantaloupe. We still need to plant our tomotoes and sweet potatoes. I can't wait to see how things grow this year.

I knew I forgot something!

Let us know how the broccoli goes. My uncle talked us out of planting it because it gets some bug on it?!

[Danno 1,228]

We have a very large garden at the house and an even larger one at the cabins. Each year we all throw in like $20-40 to buy all the plants, seeds, etc. Then, we have a day where we plant everything. This past Monday was our day this year My uncles also started an "orchard" this year at our cabins. Obviously, it'll be awhile before that's really giving us much, but it's a great thing. I really enjoy gardening and care more about the quality/taste/freshness more than I do the cost. I love being able to just go outside and pick whatever I want.

Right now we have arugula, butter lettuce, romaine, spinach, turnips, and organo really going strong. Those were all things we planted earlier. I brought a bunch of lettuce in today for lunch. My only complaint about that was it rained really hard last night, so everything was splattered with mud. It took many many rinses to get everything off the lettuce.

Monday we planted...lots of herbs...basil, thyme, horseradish, opal basil, sage, parsley, rosemary, chives, garlic, shallots, some thing my little cousin picked up but not really sure what it is. Heirloom tomatoes...lots of varieties, wide variety of chilis and bell peppers, regular tomatoes were already planted, different types of squash, pumpkins, zucchini, okra, already had snow peas and green beans planted, okra, cucumber, leeks, eggplant (not sure about that because apparently it gets little black bugs on it really bad).

Berries we already have...gooseberry, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry. Lime tree that we keep inside and has only ever produced 3 limes in like 4yrs lol. Apple tree, 2 peach trees. Ughhhh...oh and we have bees

Don't really have any photos of the garden yet since everything was just planted, but I do have pics of my uncle with the bees!

Wow sounds like you have a lot going on, I have wanted to start a fruit tree or two but I my procrastinations is still in action.

Maybe I will make a photo or two of my humble set-up and post it.