Vegetable Gardening

[mudmucker]

I'll check out that book by Eliot Coleman. I have some other bibles I use that I bought in the 80's, so I have heard of the "hot frame" with the hot unripe horse manure. Interestingly, there is a barn that boards horses a quarter mile down the road but I've never made an attempt to get any.

But sigh, my lack of full sun in many parts of the property is the biggest drawback. I still end up having a decent garden though. Although, I pretty much get full sun after the leaves drop.

For those of you with deer problems, have you ever heard of the water scarecrow? It has a sensor for up to around 35 feet. Obviously it may not be suitable for some setup situations but it might be a viable option for someone. It's fairly costly though but I've seen them for around $65. I have no idea how effective they really are.

[OakLeaf]

First green beans of the season. They're delicious, but I'm just so bummed I have no one to share them with.

I knew early on in this relationship that DH's family of origin would always come first, and to be fair, this particular crisis is real (though probably avoidable) - I'd probably be with him if it hadn't started while he was already out of town and closer to them than to me.

The only good thing is, having this happen just as the harvest starts coming in is forcing me to eat better. Normally when he's out of town it's frozen dinners for me (Amy's Kitchen, okay, but still). Right now, no way am I going to let these vegetables go to waste.

[Grog]

Right now, no way am I going to let these vegetables go to waste.

I have been thinking a lot about that recently, and it gives me a new take on "finish your plate."

I just have a small container "garden" this year, including four cherry tomato trees (lots of flowers, some green tomatoes, and lots of promise there!), various types of lettuce, a (single) zucchini plant (thanks Buddha Bellies!) that is gloriously blooming right now, and about a dozen beets and carrots (each). There is A LOT of love and work going into each gram of food that will come out of that "garden" because there are no economies of scale at all.

There is NO WAY I would let one leaf of lettuce go to waste from that garden. Or one single carrot. I don't think I could stand the stress of serving those beets at a dinner party when the time comes to eat them: what if a guest does not eat the beet? Or the last leaf of lettuce? I'll just keep them for myself and my husband (who's discovering what lettuce really tastes like).

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Smilingcat-
Thanks!-Yes i will certainly look into making a plastic 'hoop house' of some kind....or even some discarded glass windows set on straw bales like people used to do a lot back when. We'll see whether I success this fall with what I'm planting from seed now.

We are so much appreciating every leaf of lettuce coming out of the little garden these days! We are eating about 5 times the number of salads we used to, simply because we have all this wonderful fresh lettuce! I have so much lettuce right now that I have to give some away every few days, and I find myself very carefully picking just the right people to give some to. Makes me feel like I'm checking them out as 'suitable foster parents' for my lettuce!

One week from today my big wonderful garden fence will be in and my garden will be relatively safe (except from possible climbing raccons, but nothing is perfect). No deer, rabbits, or woodchucks will be able to eat my stuff. I can't wait!

Tiny seedlings of radish, bok choy, beets, lettuce, and kohlrabi are poking up from the ground already in pretty little green 1/4" tall rows, and I'm hoping no rabbits will mow them down over the next few days before the fence goes in. (fingers crossed) There were deer footprints through the open garden beds the other morning, but nothing much there for them to eat yet.

Oakleaf- you could always blanch and freeze a small bag of green beans for your DH's return...

[Grog]

Cute moment at dinner last night, as my husband and I talked about the "garden":

Me, excited: And there is a little zucchini that's starting to grow there! I just saw it today!

He, nonchalent: How do you know it's there?
Me, puzzled: What do you mean, how do I know it's there? It's there!
He, getting puzzled: But how can you see it?
Me, laughing: It's not growing underground!! It's above ground!

My husband thought zucchini and cucumber grew underground.

However big the quotation marks around "garden," this is proving to be educational for everybody.

[smilingcat]

Cute moment at dinner last night, as my husband and I talked about the "garden":

Me, excited: And there is a little zucchini that's starting to grow there! I just saw it today!

He, nonchalent: How do you know it's there?
Me, puzzled: What do you mean, how do I know it's there? It's there!
He, getting puzzled: But how can you see it?
Me, laughing: It's not growing underground!! It's above ground!

My husband thought zucchini and cucumber grew underground.

However big the quotation marks around "garden," this is proving to be educational for everybody.

Too funny!! But I can see this happening.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

We've been enjoying a surplus of leaf lettuces from my older little garden for the past few weeks. I have been giving fresh lettuce to a woman friend I fitness walk with, and once I gave it to her in a flat tupperware box.
She returned the box to me the other day full of soaked broccoli sprouting seeds.
This was something new to me. So I did what she told me and now three days later I had a nice 2 cup harvest of green broccoli sprouts- my first sprouts ever!

I've always liked alfalfa sprout sandwiches, so I did some quick reading on sprouting and today at the health food store I bought some more sprouting seeds to try: alfalfa, flax, and more broccoli seed.
I soaked and set some alfalfa up in a jar, and some flax in a plastic box.

Cool to think that I could grow fresh greens in the middle of winter blizzards.

Do you guys do sprouts too?

Deaimond- this is some 'gardening' you could certainly do without any land at all!