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Food Growing Your Own Food

Discussion in 'Tilted Food' started by Baraka_Guru, Mar 14, 2012.

  1. SuburbanZombie

    SuburbanZombie Housebroken

    Location:
    Northeast
    I usually judge its ok to plant when the plants show up at Lowe's.
     
  2. genuinemommy

    genuinemommy Moderator Staff Member

    Around here they start planting the crops at mother's day, but my garden has been booming since March, since we enjoyed a mild winter. Plant whenever. Especially if you're putting them in pots, just watch the weather report and bring them inside if there's going to be temperatures below freezing.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  3. SuburbanZombie

    SuburbanZombie Housebroken

    Location:
    Northeast
    Well the weather finally decided to cooperate and I was able to get my vegetable garden in.
    Here is what I planted:
    2 tomato
    1 cherry tomato
    1 yellow squash
    1 zucchini
    2 cucumber
    4 eggplant
    1 each red, yellow and green bell pepper
    1 watermelon
    1 canteloupe
    1 honey dew melon

    The melons are experiments. I have no idea if I'll get anything off them. Planted watermelon last year and got a dozen fruits off it, but I picked them too soon. Apparently melons don't ripen off the vine. Was reading up on the other 2 and they can be tricky to grow but what the hell. Might as well give it a shot.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  4. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

  5. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    We got ours in yesterday as well.
    We seem to be vulnerable to frost here up until Memorial Day but the forecast for the week looks warm so we went for it.
    Brandywine heirloom tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes. Pickle sized cukes. Butternut squash. Buttercrisp lettuce with leaf lettuce to follow. Peas.
    And we are trying brussell sprouts for the first time on the recommendation of a friend.

    I'd also like to plant asparagus but it's so good at the farm market now that I never get around to planting our own.
     
  6. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    We got a "tabletop" tomato plant and some basil to add to our parsley, chives, and mint. I hope to add some greens, such as kale, chard, or something.
     
  7. SuburbanZombie

    SuburbanZombie Housebroken

    Location:
    Northeast
    Asparagus sounds interesting to grow but I never see shoots for sale around here. At least not in the big box garden centers. Maybe next year when I expand the garden some more.
     
  8. ASU2003

    ASU2003 Very Tilted

    Location:
    Where ever I roam
    I have expanded my raspberry crop this year to take up 60% of my garden, and it looks like they will be ripe a month earlier than normal. What is interesting is that the plants in the hot greenhouse didn't do as good as the ones outside in late March/April. It was warm here, but I figured hotter than summer temps (120-140F) would have helped instead of the 50-70F temps outside during the sunny days.

    But now the bees are happy that there are lots of flowers.
     
  9. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    So are these purely cultivated raspberries?
    We have lots of wild ones around here and we do what we can to encourage them to go forth and multiply.
    We get some nice fruit that varies a lot year by year and I'm guessing the cultivated ones would be more productive and predictable.
     
  10. spindles

    spindles Very Tilted

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    I wonder if the possums around here are grateful for the amount of work my wife does to give them tasty things to eat.

    I have the complete opposite to Baraka - we have a pretty large suburban block, so space is not an issue. It is coming into winter here, but that is actually pretty mild so planting happens all year round.

    The yard includes:
    • 2 orange trees (a navel and a blood orange)
    • 3 lemon trees
    • a lime tree
    • strawberries
    • a blueberry tree (no fruit yet - hopefully next summer)
    • 5 garden beds for veges/herbs
    We have rosemary, parsley, thyme, sage, coriander (what you call Cilantro) and will plant basil in season. The possums are really giving the parsley a good seeing to.

    I know there are snow peas planted, and definitely some salad leaves - no idea what else is planted - this is not my domain - I just enjoy the fruits of my wife's labour :)
     
  11. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    We just added a hot Portugal pepper plant (they're about as hot as bird's eye chilies if I'm not mistaken) and a spice basil plant.

    We also started seeds for some Swiss chard, some pak choy, and green peas.
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2012
  12. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    • Like Like x 1
  13. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    Peas are coming up!

    Choy is coming up!

    Chard is coming up!

    Basil is "basiling"!

    Hot pepper plant is blooming!

    Tomato plant is loading up its bounty!

    And, of course, the mint is growing faster than I can drink it!

    OMG!
     
    • Like Like x 1
  14. PonyPotato

    PonyPotato Very Tilted

    Location:
    Columbus, OH
    My tomatoes and tomatillo plants are blooming, my kale is expanding, the pepper plants are beginning to get little flower buds on them, and my other plants continue to grow! yay!!

    My list now comes to:

    3 tomato plants (cherry, patio princess, purple heirloom)
    1 tomatillo plant (I hear that they don't self-pollinate well, so my hopes are not high for it)
    2 bell pepper plants
    1 banana pepper plant
    1 zucchini plant
    3 everbearer strawberry plants
    a bunch of kale
    sunflowers
    green onions
    basil
    mint
    rosemary
    lavender

    :) I LOVE my patio this summer!! :)
     
    • Like Like x 2
  15. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    We didn't get around to planting the garden until this weekend, although my MIL had already gotten the tomatoes in. She planted 19 tomato plants, all of different varieties: Boxcar Willie, Akers West Virginia, Green Zebra, Old German, Djena Lee's Golden Girl, and a canning variety I can't remember the name of. Last year we planted San Marzanos, but it didn't get hot enough for them to ripen until late in the season, which was kind of disappointing. I figure I can make tomato jams of all different colors this year :) We got in the beans, an Asian Express cucumber, and we're waiting to plant the hot peppers (purple jalapeno, green jalapeno, Serrano, and Thai) until this weekend.

    Once I'm well, I've got to get out on my deck and harvest my radishes--they're going crazy right now.
     
  16. SuburbanZombie

    SuburbanZombie Housebroken

    Location:
    Northeast
    Well we've had a pretty substandard yield so far this year. The zucchini was infested by stink bugs and some form of fungus. The tomato plants are already dying. Critters got at the eggplant and pepper plants. The yellow squash, cantaloupe and honeydew plants are all undersized.
    The cucumber and watermelon plants are thriving. Getting a good number of cukes. Only 3 watermelons so far but still weeks away from harvesting them.
    This is also the first year I didn't add Miracle Grow garden soil to the garden prior to planting. Only used loam from the compost pile.
     
  17. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    If you're in the northeast I would guess it's been dry like it has been here.
    Did you water?
     
  18. SuburbanZombie

    SuburbanZombie Housebroken

    Location:
    Northeast
    Not really. We've been getting fairly regular nightly storm cells. Those quick downpours that soak everything in 5 minutes, then is gone.
     
  19. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    All the effort is starting to pay off! We will soon be drowning in tomatoes. I put up about 5 lbs of tomatoes a week ago, and I am going to go pick more today. It's supposed to be in the low 90s-upper 80s over the next few days, and so I'm hoping the rest of our tomatoes will come on next week while I have time to process them all.

    What are you all doing with the food that you've grown? Has anyone produced enough to do more than eat it fresh?
     
  20. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    Tomato drowning commenced here a few weeks ago.
    We're eating them as fast as they come off the plants.
    A BLT with homegrown bacon, tomatoes and lettuce from the garden on fresh peasant bread is a sublime experience.

    Anyone else grow potatoes?
    This is the best potato crop I've ever had.

    Everything else in the garden is about average this year.
    Except the brussels which got ravaged by cabbage moths and haven't rallied back very well.