Vegetable Gardening!

[TurtIe]

Any avid gardeners out there? We try to grow a lot of our own vegetables from scratch, right now- Spring having just Sprung here in Aus- we've got tomatoes and cucumbers on the way and last seasons broccoli and carrots on the way out.

I tried to search for a similar thread but couldn't find anything (otherwise please redirect me) so I made one myself

[Frost of the Gloaming]

We are at the end of our season here but definitely going to be doing some more research for the garden I'm going to be putting in next spring

[ChristArtist]

We live in Florida, and I'm told we can grow things here while the rest of the U.S. Freezes. We rarely get more than a day freezing.

I'm willing to talk gardens all year round!

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[TurtIe]

We live in Florida, and I'm told we can grow things here while the rest of the U.S. Freezes. We rarely get more than a day freezing.

I'm willing to talk gardens all year round!

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Have you ever given it a try? I started with basil and chives in containers and went from there. The beauty of gardening is that it can be as small scale or large scale as you want!

 

[ChristArtist]

I did try the first year on our apartment balcony. The fresh chives and parsley were amazing! The new house has a huge balcony/lanaii...facing east. At least it won't get fried by the afternoon sun.

First, we have to get the house, then move in. Butt I want an herb garden...maybe even grown inside, if not on the lanai!

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[ChristArtist]

I may have had chives and basil as well.

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[Frost of the Gloaming]

That's one thing I have never learned how to grow is herbs, I can grow pretty much any type of squash/tomato/bean that you want and the last few years we have been experimenting with lettuce and kale

 

The problem with early gardens here is that you can have weeks of 60f+ temps but a random few days will be below freezing destroying any early crops  

[roundoff]

We do a salsa garden every year (tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro), and typically a few other things. Last year we made the garden too big and couldn't keep up with it, so this year we took a break from growing and just worked on planning/relocating/prep. The plan for next year is to have sweet potatoes, squash, broccoli and cabbage in the mix.

[ChristArtist]

Never got the broccoli too work...Never grew garlic, but one year we had great onions and tomatoes!

Frost...Those were in Indiana and Ohio...Those late freezes or frosts were such cruel jokes!

The thing with our new gardening is that it's in Florida, like I said, but the other is that it will need to be a container garden made to look pretty for the hoa. That might be even more difficult to learn. I think that even the raggediest garden is gorgeous...because, well, because! Green! Flowers! Fruit! Life! But first, fresh herbs!

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[TurtIe]

That's one thing I have never learned how to grow is herbs.

Herbs largely come down to knowing your individual herb. Rosemary for example grows fine in a pot whereas basil does much better in open soil. Oregano likes dry soil whereas mint will grow (and spread) anywhere. I use basil and rosemary mostly in cooking and I grow chives around garden borders because they keep pests away. I've grown sage, lemon balm and thyme before too but I didn't really use them much so I pulled them out and composted them to make room for marigolds (which also help keep your garden pest free).

 

 

Never got the broccoli too work...Never grew garlic, but one year we had great onions and tomatoes!

Broccoli is tricky if you don't have the right conditions and you're not wary of white cabbage moths (which love it). I've had the most success with it in late autumn, if the soil is too warm it will flower overnight. As for white cabbage moths, cutting some white plastic bags into strips and tying them around the garden so they look like wings seems to keep them away (they think the bags are moths that have already staked out the territory). 

As for garlic, it's the lazy gardeners best friend. When a clove in the pantry sprouts leaves just jam them in the ground leaf pointing up and forget about them. They're ready to dig up in a few months when their leaves dry out- plus they're a natural pest repellent. 

[Texelsaur]

I tried running a garden for a few years.  The first year was moderately successful and I got cucumbers and more zucchini than I could ever know what to do with.  I moved and expanded the plot the following year and it became too much work to keep up with, so it all went to hell.

 

Two vegetables that I have routinely struggled with are tomatoes and peppers.  The tomatoes always split around their tops and are halfway necrotic by the time they're ready to pick.  The peppers always rotted on the plant once they were close to full-size.

 

I'm currently in the market to buy a house, and I'm hoping to try another garden once settled.

[TurtIe]

I've never had much luck with zucchini, I've gotten a few fruit off them but it's so humid up here that they're just ticking time bombs for powdery mildew. Tomatoes are like children in the regard they do the best with a solid routine- the skins tend to split when they're watered erratically and undergo uneven periods of growth (although this can happen to the best of us- you can water every day to perfection and still get a bunch of split skins thanks to some unexpected heavy rain).

Peppers (referred to as capsicum in Australia) aren't my cup of tea so I've never tried to grow them.

Our garden is really taking to spring, I've got two out of my six tomato plants going absolutely nuts producing blossoms and from what I can tell, most of them are fruiting. The mulberry tree is starting to put out plenty of ripe fruit and the carrots are nearly ready to pull. I've also taken over my in-laws unused raised beds, I put in a bunch of heirloom cucumbers as well as some bunching onions, basil, tomatoes and sugar baby watermelons. I've started them all from seed so I'm hoping they take but only time will tell.

[Silo]

Our gardening season is pretty much over too but I am thinking about next year already, though. This year's garden was a bit of a disappontment due to excess rain in June. The beans and cucumbers did well but tomatoes did not. We built these raised beds a few years ago. We had to have a bunch of soil brought in to fill them and now we're at the point where we need to add more soil and amendments. I'll probably work on it some this next weekend.

 

[Frost of the Gloaming]

So I'm plotting out where I'm going to put the garden next year and realizing that I'm going to have to really bunny proof it, they are friggin everywhere and of course deer like to use our back yard as a thoroughfare, this is going to be fun

[TurtIe]

Our gardening season is pretty much over too but I am thinking about next year already, though. This year's garden was a bit of a disappontment due to excess rain in June. The beans and cucumbers did well but tomatoes did not. We built these raised beds a few years ago. We had to have a bunch of soil brought in to fill them and now we're at the point where we need to add more soil and amendments. I'll probably work on it some this next weekend.

That looks great! 

Do you have any composting systems for soil amendments? We put most of our scraps through a vermicompost unit (i.e. worm bin) and use the worm castings and juice as a soil conditioner. We also have a slow compost unit for garden and paper waste, which generally fills up over winter and is used to top up the veggie patch come spring.

[Rocker3722]

Hi!! I love gardening and I'm just getting back into it after stopping for a few years so right now I just have a small garden with turnips and mustard. The spring is really when I go all out with it I love growing (and eating) peppers, okra, and cantaloupe.

[Elastigirl]

So I'm plotting out where I'm going to put the garden next year and realizing that I'm going to have to really bunny proof it, they are friggin everywhere and of course deer like to use our back yard as a thoroughfare, this is going to be fun

Grrr, I'd forgotten about bunnies. I have a backyard veggie garden, but want to put a bed in the front yard because it gets more sun. But I've already seen tons of bunnies grazing in our yard.

[Tolsimir]

We started out with two square meter gardens in our backyard this year. The rest is pretty much a concrete rectangle behind the house. Sad.

But it's so much fun to maintain them - we got out the last stuff now, green beans, and all the squares are pretty much empty. Autumn starts soon and we'll have to figure out where to go from here. Boyfriend has big plans for next spring - with lots of raised beds.

[Leafa]

I started getting interested in gardening, just as the fall sets in. I live in an area where there is snow on the ground for literally half the year, it'll probably be coming down within the next 2-3 weeks, so I'm looking to start off with some herbs I can keep in the kitchen. I'm thinking of buying a rosemary plant just because they're fairly scented and will make the place smell nice.

 

I'd love to be able to start gardening enough to offset buying some things. Lately I've started trying to buy local which can be difficult when you live on an island.

[CuriousCat]

I'm not a great gardener,  but I enjoy food-from-the-garden.  We're on a very small block,  but we've made room for a big bed of herbs, another of leafy salad greens,  and another of tomatoes,  pumpkins, garlic,  chillis and cucumbers.  We've also got a long strip beside the looong driveway of baby dwarf fruit trees - couple of apples,  a nectarine,  peach,  orange,  apple,  lemon, lime,  mandarin and grapefruit.  Hopefully we'll get a lot more fruit this year. Also trying my hand at potatoes, corn,  and sweet potatoes for the first time. 

 

...I'm only interested in edible gardening,  can you tell? ?

[Frost of the Gloaming]

I can't post links, but I found an interesting gardening technique that would save room and look pretty cool; it's a double ring cage, the inner ring is a smaller feeder cage that you line with garden fabric and fill with compost that way when you water the nutrients leech into the soil, the outer ring you plant tomatoes (any viney plant really) and you just tie the vines to the cage as they grow taller by the end of the season it should look like one gigantic tomato bush

 

I'm going to try growing my tomatoes and beans this way next year

 

So far deciding on growing, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, spinach and kale

[Frost of the Gloaming]

so I realized that I'd rather be gardening than actually working

 

but I just came up with a few ideas that if I can actually scratch out on paper might be a way to save space and garden in the urban environment; the idea is to take a 6ft piece of wide pvc pipe drill holes into the sides, run a soaker hose with a sprinkler top through the middle of the pipe and completely fill the pipe with soil, plant whatever you want that's shallow based (no potatoes, carrots, root veggies) I'm thinking spinach, lettuce, kale, herbs

[Stonie]

Subbing here because I have dreams of a life sustained by my very own edible garden; I have plans to do this once I move to the house my partner and I are planning on buying early next year. I love the idea of gardening, but I've struggled to make it stick for longer then a month or two. Less then optimal garden bed positioning and shitty soil (not in a good way) doesn't help, and a tendency to forget about plants until it's too late have stopped me thus far xD I should attempt herbs again, to at least get a feel for gardening once again before I can move house and start something more permanent.

 

I have had good luck with tomatoes and strawberries so far, and mint, which was in my garden when I moved into this rental and it's just taken over! I got gifted some tomato plants which made me want to look after them a bit better, and even had enough to make a whole jar of chutney with one time! I live in Australia too, just for reference.

[TurtIe]

Yeah soil is a huge issue. We've gotten a fairly good yield so far this spring, but I put some of my left over seedlings in my in-laws raised beds and they have gone berserk- growing fast and growing big! I'm so jealous of their perfectly loamy soil, the stuff I have is very clay dominant and it really does slow things down.

[captncid]

Hey all! I just found this thread and wanted to see if there was room to include my aquaponics greenhouse. Here are some pics: (getting more tomorrow after I get more stuff planted.)

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