Vegetable Gardening

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Well it's all relative I guess.
We have friends with large rambling farmhouses and acres of fertile land, while we live on 1/3 acre sitting on rocky shale, which is why I had to BUY a whole mess of topsoil to put this garden in. We are foregoing some things in order to put this garden in. Yet, I do realize we are lucky indeed to have the space and the funds to do it.
My daughters both live in apartments with no yard at all. One has herbs in pots on the fire escape and is going to start growing wheat grass in her windowsills in trays- her little garden! I am sending her some other sprout seeds to grow in jars. You can grow sprouts anywhere inside- in jars, trays, or in hemp bags.
It's an art to find creative ways to raise edible things in the smallest and/or most unlikely places (as i'm sure some of you already do).
I read that some people grow oyster and other mushrooms under their kitchen sinks. I keep my worm-powered compost bin 'hive' in my kitchen, mostly because I enjoy them being right there to tend to them. Other people in apt's have their worm bins in their closets, or under the bed or under the sink, in a tupperware bin.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I discovered a whole bunch of ready to pick string beans that were hiding under the top leaves in my old little garden today.
I made them into a vinaigrette bean salad.
Here's the 'recipe' if anyone else has string beans from their gardens coming on now...(I didn't actually measure anything though):
http://strumelia.blogspot.com/2009/0...ean-salad.html

[tulip]

Lisa, I LOVE your "old" garden! You really packed it in. In my opinion, a garden should have "no dirt;" that is, no dirt visible. You can really, really get alot of production out of a small space if you plan it right.

Your new garden will be a delight, too, no doubt.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Lisa, I LOVE your "old" garden! You really packed it in. In my opinion, a garden should have "no dirt;" that is, no dirt visible. You can really, really get alot of production out of a small space if you plan it right.

I agree, the less dirt showing in a vegetable garden, the less weeding and less watering you have to do. Of course, I have almost nothing BUT dirt in the new garden right now. But planning, and sowing seeds is great fun too. I have a lot of little seedlings coming up now that I want to thin and move around a bit to even their spacing.

The fence guys are finishing the fence right now, in the steady rain for the past several hours. I hope it stops raining long enough for me to take a few pictures of the very impressive anti-varmint fence before it gets dark this evening. i think this fence will be there long after I'm dead and gone...hopefully with someone else happily gardening inside it.

Arielmoon- I feel your pain- I have not had a decent tomato harvest in 3 years now, and this year's crop don't look very promising either. Instead I did well with lettuce this year, what with all the cool weather and rain. Lately I am having GREAT fun 'farming' sprouts in jars, trays, and cloth bags in my kitchen- you might try sprouts if you want a quick confidence boost- they are really EASY and delicious! I'm totally hooked on sprout sandwiches now. I love their cool refreshing green-ness.

[OakLeaf]

My tomatoes have a disease. It's not late blight, it's either bacterial spot, bacterial speck, or fungal spot - not 100% sure which, although I'm leaning toward bacterial spot.

I'm trying garlic oil spray on it. May try neem oil if that doesn't work.

At least I haven't seen any hornworms yet this year. Those things are voracious. So sorry about your plants arielmoon! Keep an eye on your pepper plants though, tomato hornworms will eat them when they run out of tomato.

Froze about 5 lbs of green beans today.

[arielmoon]

Just frustrating cause I want it all organic but I cant find anything that works. My co-worker uses a water/Murphy's Oil Soap/ Cayenne pepper mixture that I may have to try.

So far the peppers are hanging in there. The squash refuses to grow anything- just maybe doesnt like containers but I was trying it out.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Froze about 5 lbs of green beans today.

Did you blanch them first? Good harvest!

The squash refuses to grow anything- just maybe doesnt like containers but I was trying it out.

I don't know myself, but do squash maybe need more than one plant to pollinate each other's flowers?

[OakLeaf]

Insecticidal soap will kill any and all adult insects - including the beneficials, but I've been known to "nuke" plants that are seriously infested. A tablespoon of Dr. Bronner's in a quart of water.

Bt (Thuricide) is considered organic caterpillar control. Hand picking is best, although I know how hard it is to see the hornworms when they're small (sometimes even when they're big!).

Have you got female blossoms on your squash? If you don't have a lot of bees you may need to pollinate them by hand. Easy enough with a small kid's paintbrush.

Yep, blanched my beans.