OFFICIAL 2011 Garden thread

[88GT]

i bought 4 tomato plants, 2 green, and 2 red pepper plants. starting small... see where this takes me.

Last year--my first--I had 4 tomato plants, 4 sweet pepper plants, and 2 jap plants. This year I will have close to 50 combined with 3 variety of tomatoes, and 4 varieties of peppers. So beware. Of course, a lot depends on what you intend to do with it. My garden is a SHTF insurance policy so a lot of our stuff is grown specifically for "put away" purposes.

 

[cumminspwrd02]

Last year--my first--I had 4 tomato plants, 4 sweet pepper plants, and 2 jap plants. This year I will have close to 50 combined with 3 variety of tomatoes, and 4 varieties of peppers. So beware. Of course, a lot depends on what you intend to do with it. My garden is a SHTF insurance policy so a lot of our stuff is grown specifically for "put away" purposes.

Part of my garden is for fresh produce this summer and fall, the other half will be canned. I'm gonna have alot of tomato plants this year so if the weather stays good I'm hoping to have good harvest, alot will be canned as sauce and stewed tomatos. I'm gonna pickle alot of peppers this season too. What i don't eat or pickle will be chopped up and thrown in the deep freeze or if they are hot i'll make some good hot sauce.

 

[stilllearning09]

I am behind on my garden this year. At this time, all I have planted are onions ( red and yellows), garlic, horseradish, spinach, and leaf lettuce. I have herbs that come up every year, but I just let them do their thing. Picked up materials yesterday to add another 10X5 raised bed.

 

[gunsisgood]

Tomatoes and lettuce are doing very well.

 

[stilllearning09]

I finally got tomatoes, potatoes and peppers in the garden. Still need to put in cukes for pickles. I need to install one more rain barrel, too.

 

[snorko]

About two weeks late for me, but finally got a somewhat smaller than usual garden in this weekend. Three kinds of tomatoes, Ichiban eggplant, collards, okra and herbs. Also for fun planted a bed of sweet potatos for something new.

Too late for broccoli, at least plants were not to be found. Since it's a late start, I am going to try a late fall garden with broccoli, kale and some other stuff.

 

[hooky]

Tomatoes are about 18" tall. Lettuce and onions are up. Pole beans should be breaking through any day now. I still have to get broccoli in the ground.

 

[red_zr24x4]

Just finished putting mine in today. 3 different types of tomatoes, red,green,yellow peppers, chilli peppers, jalapenos, yellow squarsh , peas, and finally some sunflowers.
I have some onions to plant yet plus I have some that came up from last year.

I can't believe how many jalapenos I use when we grow them. I think we caned about 20 pint jars last year and they are gone. So I planted a ton of them this year

 

[stilllearning09]

Too late for broccoli, at least plants were not to be found. Since it's a late start, I am going to try a late fall garden with broccoli, kale and some other stuff.

I start my fall broccoli seeds in August, and transplant in Sept. Broccoli grown in the fall tastes much better than spring grown broccoli.

 

[cumminspwrd02]

My garden is doing well too. Already got a few handfuls of radishes harvested from the garden over the weekend. Pea plants are flowering and growing fast, I found couple pea pods on one this afternoon. My tomatos are doing really well. I planted a couple other varities over the weekend. I already had cherry, early girl, big boy or better boy (forgot which one) and beefsteak. Saturday I added a few pineapple tomatos and some golden boys. Had a few flowers on some of the plants today and the first tomato is growing too. Everything really grew alot the last few days with the warm weather and the rains we've had. I think I'll get my peppers in either next weekend or the weekend after.

 

[bwframe]

Easy spinach recipes?

The hot temps have the spinach headed for the sky, sadly before it got very "bushy."

Anyone have any unique easy spinach recipes?
Also, I've never been much of a seed saver. Should I let some of this go to seed to try it?

 

[hooky]

We add spinach to everything, scrambled eggs, pasta dishes, soups, use it like lettuce on sandwiches. Nothing unique, but it was easy to get the kids to eat it when they were little. Now a couple of times/week, we'll just stuff a stock pot full of it, add a little water, cover and wilt it down under low heat. Drain it and add a little cider vinegar...mmmmm

 

[tomc]

My wife and I started our raised bed this spring (or what was left of spring). Last year we just tilled the ground and planted directly on it, which was fine except that we were out of town for a week and we came back finding the weeds had taken over and we never recovered.

The raised bed is doing well, so we're going to build two more (our veggie plot is only 20'x15', the pitfalls of living in the suburbs). So far the lettuce is doing well, tomatoes, strawberries, dill, uh, I forgot what else. My wife bought all the seeds. All I did was move dirt to wherever she told me to.

 

[88GT]

So glad to see this is still alive and kickin'. I've got a bunch of pics from this weekend I need to get off the camera. Hopefully I'll find time to do that tonight, but it doesn't look promising.

Everything but the bush beans are in and I'm not too worried about them. The onions have already fizzled. They just never did get off to a good start this year. Green beans were the last to go in and have finally made an appearance. So, at this point, everything has something going, even if the germination rate leaves a little to be desired right now.

Gonna fertilize this weekend. Otherwise, I'm at the dreaded hurry-up and wait stage.

 

[bwframe]

...The onions have already fizzled. They just never did get off to a good start this year.

Not sayin' it will work for me or you, but I picked up a couple bunches of Granex plants over the weekend at Walmart. Onion plants are a bit expensive, but they have always produced for me.

 

[stilllearning09]

My garden just got shredded by the hail.

 

[stilllearning09]

I bought tomato and pepper plants to replace the hail shredded ones. Plan on putting them in this weekend, weather permitting!

 

[1946]

Sorry to hear about the hail damage on your garden 09.
I've only planted two rows of beans so far. The ground has just been too wet for me to plant anything else. I've got 48 tomato plants patiently waiting to be set out along with a lot of other starts.
If I can only get about 4 dry days in a row, I should be good to go.

 

[RyanV]

Wow how did I miss this thread! This year will be the first time I'll be gardening on my own. I made three 4 ft x 10 ft raised beds and filled them with topsoil/compost today. Tomorrow I will try to plant. I got a late start because I was out of town but hopefully it will turn out alright!

 

[XtremeVel]

Really running behind this year due to all the rain. Have it planted except what we plant in the cinder block holes and what we plant for harvest toward fall.... Always like to plant the compact vine cucumber plants in the holes in the blocks and let the small 18-24 inch vine sprawl across the walk path or the bush type green beans...

In the pics are tomatos, zuchinni, musk melon, rhubarb, khorabi, spinach, beets, leaf lettuce and onions.