Any gardeners, it's that time
General Topic
Much rather have homemade chocolate chip cookies than garden vegetables. Usually grow a small one though.
Yep, just got all my seeds planted on the eclipse day, had the day off work so I made the best of it. Already have sprouts popping up.
We do a pretty good garden but here in WY it will be a month before I can plant. We might get 14" of snow next week if the storm does what they think...
We have green tomatoes, peppers coming on and beans blooming.
I'd love to start my garden, but the snow is still ass-deep...!
Pete
Expanding the garden this year. Zone 4b where the garden is but may go ahead and plant some lettuce this weekend to get a head start. The $200 rear tine tiller Scrappy gave everyone a heads up on last year works great. It's a workhorse. I got mine for $100 given some delivery issues.
That's a nice setup timex
Recently got turned on to collards. By far one of the most bountiful yielding vegetables I grow now. 4 plants and we are eating them every 2 weeks at least. And not hard to make tasty.
We’re getting ready to start as I started my seeds while in Florida. I’m huge fan of collards that and my wife’s cornbread with pot liquor yummy.All my tomatoes are indeterminate Cherokee purple is incredible,collards of course cilantro,pickles,cucumbers,jalapeño,basil,dill,potatoes,okra,onions,Swiss chard,plus I have around two hundred asparagus crowns. I’m getting hungry thinking about it.I’ve left out a few others Good luck Let
I roto tilled the garden 2 days ago and we have most of our seeds planted here in the house so they will be ready when planting time gets here.
I'll be building some raised beds next Spring. For this year it'll just be a couple tomato plants and my asparagus patch again.
I’ve also done the straw bales garden the last couple of years with great success I’ll be doing some more this season.Lewis
Gonna till it up this weekend. I picked the first sprigs of asparagus out of my patch two days ago.
I agree. I look forward to that first tomato sandwich;)
I hate gardening, but love eating vegetables from it Wife would start it, but I ended up taking care of it. Fortunately a Vietnamese family bought the farm down the road. Now I just buy from them. Its amazing how much they grow, and hours they put in.
Tomato sandwiches are so underrated
I grew up spoiled. Mom always had a huge garden each year and made us kids weed, water, and snip seemingly a metric ton of beans. Hated it then. Would always pick a fight with my brother over which paring knife he got to use or if he had/ hadn't snipped as many beans as I had out of the pile. My poor mother. Also, probably didn't even appreciate the fact that 9/10 times we were eating a completely home grown meal each day... right down to the steaks, chops, burgers etc., which we had so often it wasn't even a treat.
These days I appreciate what I had more than ever, and hope to raise a family the same way. So I'm trying my hand at gardening. I wish I had paid more attention, but thankfully mom is always happy to answer gardening questions. I'm not much of a vegetable eater but damn if there isn't something satisfying about having a good meal of potatoes I cultivated and steaks from a buck I arrowed.
Guy Clark nailed it...
"What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes? Only two things that money can't buy And that's true love and homegrown tomatoes"
Garden fresh tomato’s, beans, potatoes, squash, cucumbers, corn, etc…. My favorite vegetable is a tomato. When I gardened big, I’d plant 120-140 tomato plants alone. I like tomatoes.
My doctor told me my vitamin k was high. I asked her where I get vitamin k from. She said vegetables. I said I drink a gallon of tomato juice every couple days. I eat a bag of greens for supper once a week. I said that’s during winter time. During harvest season, I may go for three to four days eating nothing but vegetables. She said,”Oh, o.k.”.
I love vegetables.
Bell peppers, green chilies, banana, jalapeno.... all good. Tomatoes my favorite though. Green onions, radishes.. chives fresh herbs ..Asparagus in about 3 more weeks. Cucumbers, zucchini, early potatoes, lettuce, mustard greens, beans. Even rhubarb.. Tried sweet corn up here but I live bordering a small river.. racoons always beat me to it. Some locals sell it in mornings during season though so I buy it.
Always look forward to it, one of life's great pleasures
Nothing better than fresh green beans cooked with bacon, onion, and mushrooms!
Blue dog, I quit growing sweet corn. To start off with, it took up two rows in my garden. I reduced the size of it when more rotted than I could sell and give away. So, those two rows cut out what turned into my habanero, chili, banana’s, and bell peppers. It’s just easier when I can buy it from local farmers and it is better than what I can grow. Plus, I get to buy what I want. Instead of dealing with 3 to 4 dozen every couple days.
I also ended up growing cabbage, a few onions, zucchini, two different beans, about 40 tomato plants, radishes, lettuce, sweet potato’s, and other herbs.
I usually have 20 to 24 tomato plants. Got some 5' cement mesh and built wire tied cages. Perfect setup.
Last couple years I get my corn from a couple young kids about 3 miles from me on a blacktop road.. I admire their business cleverness. Their driveways are only a couple hundred yards apart. They put up signs and second one is 25 or 50 cents cheaper than the first one. They do well. Second guy sells most of it of course, everybody likes a bargain.. LOL.. I spied them splitting up the corn one morning. Too funny, they're good!
I can a few most years too of course..
Timex?.... I enjoy frugal living myself. Some people mistake it for being poor... it's quite the opposite. We drive old stuff of course... my truck is a 97, wife's car a 2006..see no reason for new. The best food to me is the simple basic stuff.... house is comfortable but hardly a McMansion..Bet the shirt I have on is 15 years old at least, broke in nicely LOL
That was funny, I was about to make a gardening thread and spotted this. I do it a lot. I start me seeds indoors, raise veggies, fruit, herbs. Tons of work, saves $0 but tastes incredible. I have a planting chart if anyone wants it please email me at
[email protected] it is really handy. It is in excel you can easily modify it.
Pete you gotta tell the AK zucchini fall mischief that goes on!
Last year we got married at our house and I went nuts to make the garden look good and grow flowers. Lots of work but it turned out amazing. I planted huge branching sunflowers (my wife's favorite flower) along the walk and then trimmed and staked them to create an arch.
Pickle bar from stuff I made from the garden was a big hit. For fun I always make some pickled beets with a jalapeño tossed in, amazing.
Hard to see sunflower arch it formed a "reveal" to guests and worked out great.
One bean which is the best tasting bean has basically disappeared is the pole bean.They are labor intensive and people don’t know how to string them or don’t have the time.Back in the day my dad would sell several thousand bushels a week and ship them all over the country now you can’t find the seeds unless you have your own.We do.Lewis
Love Pablanos
Love Pablanos
Purple green beans are so good.
Purple green beans are so good.
Here’s our last year’s garden. The wife usually grows everything from heirloom seeds. Starts them in the basement under lights then plants here in Colorado around May. Just a small backyard garden.
Pole beans are amazing, the taste is life changing. I grow stringless and have tried a lot of different kinds. The stringless Kentucky Wonder pole bean are my favorite tasting and no strings to remove! I pick them when they are about 1/2 way to full size. Steam then butter salt and pepper.
Sounds great Don we really like the Dade variety which was named after Dade County Florida as Homestead was the epicenter of the winter pole bean harvest we also like the Caseknife variety and they can up so good Good luck Lewis
It’s had a lot to do with it our company which I have officially retired from also has an office in Parrish Florida my nephew oversees the sales there.We have had years where we sold over a million bushels of beans throw in the squash,peppers, tomatoes,corn,cucumbers,cabbage,to mention a few.it’s a lot of pressure just to keep things moving. I sure did love it.Lewis
You guys have some nice gardens...
I luv tomato sandwiches too, how do you guys make them... Two slices of bread, Mayo and and black pepper for me, what about you guys?
Last August had the best tasting tomato I ever ate and saved some seeds and dried them from that tomato and a few weeks ago tried germinating some of those dried seeds using the paper towel method and surprisingly some sprouted and have potted them in these solo type cups... Wish I knew the species of tomato but got it from my lady's mom who got them from her friends garden so there is no way of knowing... It'll be interesting how these seedings will turn out... My grandfather used to save and dry seeds from his best produce...
Tomato sandwich Toasted sourdough Mayo Swiss cheese Tomato Basil Salt and pepper
I love garden season! We grow a variety of veggies for freezing and canning and also have an orchard with elderberry, aronia berry, plum, apple, seaberry and currants.
Not time here yet. Onions, English peas potatoes and cabbage are out. Corn goes in about May 1st, everything else has to wait til May 15th. We sometimes see frost even after that.
Ahh the elderberries, reminds me of my youth picking wild ones for my grandma to make pies... To this day my favorite pie, they taste better when you pick them yourself...8^)
“Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!”
I seen a video last winter where a guy cut 3'-4' elderberry branches and just poked them in the ground a foot or so and he said they would root and grow into new bushes...
They are very easy to transplant and take cuttings from. Very fast growing as well, a great wildlife shrub and delicious syrup, juice and wine.
