Vegetable Gardening

[GLC1968]

I have lavender in the ground near the house, but I also have it in pots so that I can move it around our boxes as necessary to chase away the right pests. You could do that and then move it inside in the winter.

I didn't want to plant it in our boxes precisely because it's a perennial here and I plan to rotate those boxes each year. Marigolds will die after the first frost, so they work well for our use.

We have cd's strung in a row on one string that stretches across one end of our garden. It's actually not as ugly as I had thought it would be. Personally, I can't stand the pie-plate look but I'm tolerating the cd's well enough. I've also seen people using those sinful plastic grocery bags on strings (since they catch the wind so easily) as well. I've heard that they'll chase off deer if you use white ones but we don't have a deer problem, so I can't say for sure. Unfortunately, that's not a very attactive solution either though.

Scarecrows don't work. We had one when we were kids and we watched the crows just eat our corn out of the ground each time we tried replanting.

You can see them in the back of this photo:

Some of our potatoes and our corn...

And for good measure here are a few more:

The whole garden as of last weekend...


The boxes - growing like mad. (see the lavender pot? I need to repot it still...there is another one out there somewhere, too)


Freshly washed swiss chard - to go into this:


Chard and artichoke dip

And this:

Swiss chard tuna salad

We also have kale, spinach and mustard coming out of our ears at this point!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Ooooohhh.....that chard/tuna salad looks GOOD!!!! We love tuna salad and I'll have to make some with dark greens choppe din, and dill!

Your garden is looking great.
But- why no deer?? Look at all those hills and forests! No deer??
And....why don't rabbits and woodchucks just mow down all your vegetables systematically? I don't get it!
We have to put a MAJOR fence in here for deer, woodchucks, and rabbits...and we live practically in the village! Just trapped a big raccoon last week and 'transferred' him to a wild nature conservancy area. We were trying for the huge woodchuck under our shed, but got the raccoon instead. And a squirrel, which I just released again. Last year we got a baby skunk, and I just released him from the trap as well without trying to move him. Last month we had a red fox living in our yard for a week, but he seems to have moved on.

I just 'mapped out' all my successive seed sowings, to start in the next couple of days. Five successive plantings- July 4, July 18, Aug 1, Aug 10, and Aug 20.
First sowing will include: 4 types of radishes, spinach, bok choy, kohlrabi, turnips, Swiss chard, carrots, cilantro, Chinese winter radishes, purple bunching onions, scallions, leaf lettuce, romaine, butterhead lettuce, and 2 kinds of beets. (I already have some of these producing or maturing in my small older garden, which i planted in the Spring).
Last sowing will be planting radishes only, around August 20th- about 30 days before our average first frost.

[GLC1968]

We have no deer because we are surrounded by 8 foot buffalo fencing on two sides, a 6 ft privacy fence that is covered with blackberry brambles on one side and a road where cars routinely drive 65 mph all night long, on the 4th side. We are just too hard to get to in comparison to all the other bounty surrounding us, so the deer don't bother.

We do see the occasional racoon or rabbit - but with 5 dogs and 5 cats all pretty much free roaming within the space outlined above (our neighbors and us), they don't have much of a chance to do any damage before being chased off...

And the goats keep the hawks away from the chickens and the chickens keep most of the bugs under control.

We are just one big happy pest-controlling family!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

We have no deer because we are surrounded by 8 foot buffalo fencing on two sides, a 6 ft privacy fence that is covered with blackberry brambles on one side and a road where cars routinely drive 65 mph all night long, on the 4th side. We are just too hard to get to in comparison to all the other bounty surrounding us, so the deer don't bother.

We do see the occasional racoon or rabbit - but with 5 dogs and 5 cats all pretty much free roaming within the space outlined above (our neighbors and us), they don't have much of a chance to do any damage before being chased off...

And the goats keep the hawks away from the chickens and the chickens keep most of the bugs under control.

We are just one big happy pest-controlling family!

Oh, ok, that makes a lot of sense now! 8 foot buffalo fencing will certainly do it! Lucky you!
And 5 dogs in the yard will keep away the other critters for sure.

In contrast, our kitties sit about on velvet cushions inside the house nibbling bon-bons all day. They don't 'do' rabbits or woodchucks or squirrels....

[deeaimond]

I look at all these photos of your bountiful land and i'm just quite jealous of it all... wish i was born somewhere that had less people and more room.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Here is a very inspiring article in the NYTimes about urban food production and food sustainability:
StreetFarmer

And Deeaimond-
Here is an amazing website about an urban family who have transformed their 1/5 acre city lot into a self sufficient food garden of eden:
PathToFreedom
They have also started a large website here freedomgardenswhere you can find groups of all kinds of 'farmers'- even apartment dwellers who raise sprouts in tiny boxes or use only pots or window boxes to grow various food. Don't be discouraged no matter how little space you have!
I find these websites very helpful and full of all kinds of ingenious ideas for growing things in clever ways no matter what our home space is like.

[mudmucker]

Woohoo! Dance. Dance. My cherry tomatoes are turning and will be ripe by late this week. These are the ones I started from seed under the grow lights. I'm woo-hooing because and despite lack of humidity and sun which has just come back, this is early for where I am. Usually I am 2-2.5 weeks behind the rest of the state because of elevation. I started them about 3 weeks earlier than I usually do so when I put them out they already had blossoms.

And the sun is out for the second full day in a row, allowing me to catch up while on vacation and turn 2 of 3 bins of compost. Yay for the sun.

And I'm revelling in my snap peas. I could have the whole garden as snap peas I love them so much