Any gardeners here?

I just got my vegetable garden in yesterday. A little late, but it'll be fine.

I decided to plant a garden after I was tired of buying crappy produce from the local grocery. I unfortunately rent a condo, so I use a flower bed. It wasn't being used and the landscapers were not mulching this side of the house for some reason, so I called the landlord to see if they had a problem with it and when they said no, off I went.

Since then it has worked out well for me and the wife. We have gotten a lot of use out of it.

Edit: I have some pics.

I have tomatoes, red and green pepper, sport peppers, mild banana peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumbers along the house.

In planters I have sweet basil, lettuce, chives, and a strawberry plant. Not shown is my overgrown oregano planter. That's my fatass Rat Terrier in the background wondering what I'm doing.

We just put in 3 small raised bed vegetable gardens. Here's hoping it works out. Haven't had a garden in years and years.

lol the neighbors gave my kids a few seed packs...

I dug up a small area and picked up some bags of top soil... being that it's the "kids garden" the kids planted (aka put the seed in the ground lol) a week ago and we're already getting sprouts...

I plan to go bigger next year... we like veggies... may do a few raised bed gardens... the crappy cookie cutter subdivision soil is pretty bad

I want to go nuts and set up a cold frame and start gardening for reals. Maybe next yea I will have the time.

I have something like 15 feet by 25 feet raised bed. Good stuff, I love it.

I even welded up my own trellis for the beans with stuff from the local metal supply place.

I have two 4'x8' raised beds and a few pots of potatoes, a pot with canteloupe, and a small asparagus patch that won't produce anything to eat until next year. Been eating salads from the garden and liking them a lot. Tomatoes are not ready yet. - looking forward to them. Sugar snap peas and strawberries are good treats as well.

Trying- I have a 18x3 section, and some more in the back yard. Plus, I'm actually working with my grapes for the first time in a decade.

We'll see.

Just put in my 4th 4x8 raised bed a couple weeks ago, and dug in a trench for the soil bed for the bean/pea trellis. Should have a pretty good season, learning from last year's mistakes - although, procrastination worked out in our favor last year: we were late enough getting everything in that we missed the 2 weeks of scorching heat and bugs that decimated the tomato crops in our area, and we were picking armloads well into November.

We've already had radishes and arugula, the lettuces have seemed to get through the heat pretty well so far, and we pulled our first crop of beets last week. The pod peas are cruising right along (so sweet!) and it looks like the cukes are doing better than last year. Eggplants are in, and I think we're doing 5 varieties of tomatoes this year, in addition to various herbs. And I went a little crazy with wild heirloom varieties of beans and peas this year, just because I like the idea of drying them and eating garden produce through the winter.

This is also the year I buy a scoped .22 and harvest some protein from the garden. Little varmint bastards...

alex wrote: This is also the year I buy a scoped .22 and harvest some protein from the garden. Little varmint bastards...

That's hysterical. Amazingly enough, we actually have very little trouble with rabbits, squirrels and other assorted varmints (including deer). We live out in the country, and our garden is about 50x50. We grow all kinds of stuff. They really don't bother it much, just a few nibbles here and there. Our biggest problem is weeds. They are uncontrolable. We try, but can never keep up.

But there's nothing like fresh produce. Best taste, and saves tons of $$

Yup. Been at it pretty much since I've owned my own place, and that's been, well, let's just say it's been a while.

Nothing spectacular. Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, sweet corn (at the kids' request), peppers, & onions. Got a nice looking bunch of potato plants this year. I'm hoping for a good harvest.

Main thing is to spend at least a few minutes in the garden every day. That way, if there's a problem, you can act on it before it's a big problem. Tomato hornworms can literally eat your plants to the ground in a week.

Second year for me. Last year, I started everything from seeds indoors. I took the "i'm not reading or learning" approach. If it grew, so be it. I planted like 20 tomato plants in 3 square feet. Same with peppers, pole beans, etc. I figured I would get a 1-2% success rate. However, the combination of new mushroom mulch and an auto-watering system led to 100% success with all plants. Doh! Looked like 'Nam back there...only with produce. Interesting fact: pole bean will grow to unlimited height if they have something to grow on. Seriously,keep them away form the Eiffel Tower.

This year I followed the square-foot gardening method and started with small plants from Lowes. I am doing the salsa garden (tomatos, three kinds of peppers, cilantro, onions) along with some beans, strawberries, raspberries, and some mint for mojitos. That way, I can eat most of it and make/freeze salsa with the rest.

I have hops and herbs and a few little patches of berries. I like stuff that doesn't need weeding. :)

We have 5 raised garden beds in the backyard and plant every year. This year is 2 rows of snap peas, some cilantro, strawberries, lettuce, radishes, carrots, onions, peppers, and some other stuff.

Last summer we had so many peas, and they were great! It's fun to just grab some while playing in the yard for a snack. This year should be even better.

Growing your own food is really cool, a satisfying experience, cheap, and most importantly, delicious!

I put in a raised bed about 25' x 40' last year and we were covered up on everything except the vine type veggies. For some reason they just languished so this year I cut back on the tomatoes - 2 people simply can't eat 20-30 tomatoes a day, got rid of the cantelope, cucumber and squash and went with Brocolli and brussel sprouts to go along with a wide assortment of peppers.

We are now having trouble eating all the brocolli we harvest and it looks as if about 50 tomatoes will come ripe at the same time.

The peppers are growing very well this year. Much larger than last year.

We just got invaded by a horde of little green caterpillars eating everything, but a squirt of liquid sevin took care of that.

All the herbs are doing much better than last year and now I have more Bee Balm than I know what to do with.

In reply to carguy123:

That sounds like a farm. My dad had a garden (farm) that size when I was a kid. I was the de facto migrant labor. As a result, I am still trying to get over my hatred of gardens. 25 years later I am just not starting to ponder planting my own.

Broccoli is a great fall crop. It tolerates temperatures down to around 20 F. and there's no bugs! I had a great yield from about 9 plants a couple years ago. Last year, it stayed hot and dry into November and the bugs ate it!

I have a hard time growing cilantro, I have tried it in a large pot (so it had room to grow) and I've tried it in the flower bed, either way it seems lime it dies within a month of planting it. I have a friend who's an avid gardener and he tells me he can't keep his alive either.

We try to have a vegetable garden, just get some tomatoes and other simple to grow veggies in.

We also have a rather large population of wild rabbits and jack rabbits so the plan isn't working too well so far.

snow peas, gotta have snow peas... sweet

I helped a friend put his garden in (He broke his foot) about three weeks ago. Were in Cleve. Oh area. He has a plot in a comunity garden. The rain stopped long enough to let him plant. He planted white tomatoes ? Never heard of them. 30' x 40' plot. We will see ripe tomatoes toward the end of July.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: I have a hard time growing cilantro, I have tried it in a large pot (so it had room to grow) and I've tried it in the flower bed, either way it seems lime it dies within a month of planting it. I have a friend who's an avid gardener and he tells me he can't keep his alive either.

Me either, I've just given up and buy it when I need it. It seems the heat gets to it.

My spinach has been going good, but I'm expecting the summer heat to put an end to it.

carguy123 wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: I have a hard time growing cilantro, I have tried it in a large pot (so it had room to grow) and I've tried it in the flower bed, either way it seems lime it dies within a month of planting it. I have a friend who's an avid gardener and he tells me he can't keep his alive either.

Me either, I've just given up and buy it when I need it. It seems the heat gets to it.

That's funny considering its in most mexican food lol.

I am a growing medium and root freak. Been playing around with fertilizers and soils in my back yard flower garden. This year I'm not getting any afternoon wilt from any plants, even the blue potato vines (ornamental). No bug damage or nutrient deficiency or burns.They get watered every other day for a short while with drip. Tomorrow will be 108 so we shall see. Have only used granular tree and shrub fert so far. Have done a couple of flushes and will introduce liquid ferts in the full heat very soon for fun. This is in a rocky desert yard. Fun fun.

Indoors I have different plants in a soil-less coco coir/perlite mix with organic hydroponic nutrients in a grow tent. Really fun fun.

Definitely a plant geek.

Hasbro: any insight on fertilizing with worm tea? A friend gave me his worm compost setup before his move out of state, and he says there's a bunch of good stuff to dilute.

Do I just mix it to 50/50 and spray it on? (I'm thinking of a garden pump sprayer.)

alex wrote: Hasbro: any insight on fertilizing with worm tea? A friend gave me his worm compost setup before his move out of state, and he says there's a bunch of good stuff to dilute. Do I just mix it to 50/50 and spray it on? (I'm thinking of a garden pump sprayer.)

Great stuff. Setups vary, what is yours like? Is it a home made one? Do you add other ingredients such as molasses or blood meal? Do you have enough worms? Not enough worms can be a common problem.

You might try about 10 ozs. or more to the gallon. There is usually about 1% N., with .1% available immediately, .9% available slow release.

Carguy, use tea and your cilantro will look like a bonsai tree!