Do you have your own vegetable garden?

[RawHeaven]

One of my dreams is to have my own gigantic vegetable garden. Especially in light of the food epidemics as of late. Not that east this stuff anymore, but the latest General Mills tainted frozen pizza recall is scary. People will have permanent kidney damage possibly. http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071103/BUSINESS/711030336/1011/BUSINESS

Do you have a home vegetable garden? I was just curious what have been your experiences with it as my dream is to have a beautiful garden to grow delectable vegetables and herbs. We have a lemon tree now which is nice, but I'd like to expand this.

What do you love about your garden? Has it helped you remain true to your raw lifestyle?

[ladypeace82]

I'd like to know too. I had a dream that my husband and I had a garden....

which is weird b/c we don't have a house yet...

:)

[Joyeuse]

I'd love to have a huge vegetable garden and plant fruit trees, berry bushes and grape vines. I have everything planned out, as well as cold storage (we'l make a cold cellar) and freezing (for things like the berries), as well as lacto-fermenting (ie sauerkraut). For now, though, I can order in bulk when in season and store what I can. Also, I'm learning about indoor gardening. I happen to have a very nice, big window perfect for this facing south, so I just started an indoor garden. I'm starting out with wheatgrass, lettuce, mini tomatoes, sunflower sprouts and strawberries. There's plenty of information online, you can google it. Also, you can always do sprouts and a pot of herbs indoors.

[juliebove]

Yes. I have a garden but a small one. When we bought this house there were 2 apple, 2 pear, 1 cherry tree and a strawberry patch. I've since planted additional strawberries and bought 4 Earthboxes. What I grow each year varies. But generally some sort of greens, assorted onions, peppers and tomatoes. I also grow herbs.

[Lady Green Jeans]

Almost high desert here, but having been raised in Ohio I adore playing in the dirt and all the wonderfulness of a garden from weeding, thinning, bug picking and the wonderful, lucious harvest. Will be working to do at least a couple raised bed gardens this coming year. Have already gotten a couple volunteers to help me put the frame together.

The old Victory Gardens should be seeing a great resurgance. Wonder if they will name them something different now--the 'Independence Gardens' or 'Long Life Garden.' Guess they won't be using 'Refuse to Buy Into the Chemical Laden and GMO Produce Any Longer Garden.' Too much truth in advertising.

[Lavendula]

I have gardened in Alaska, the high desert, and here. Gardening on my own since 1979, but grew up with big gardens, rows and rows. Started doing boxed raised beds in 1986, and wouldn't do it any other way. You can do succession planting, companion planting, roots and verticals in the same box intensive gardening, cold frames, etc., the possibilities are endless. You don't need much space to have a garden. I am still working on extending the season for my green and leafy veggies, now that I am raw, they are more important to me than ever. I'm so sad.

[LearningDaily]

We've had a garden most years for the past 10 or so years. We currently have a small 10x10 raised garden where we are figuring out the differences between gardening in Florida as opposed to Missouri. :cool: We also have an orange tree and a banana plant.

[trinity082482]

Yep! I only grew tomato's this year because my friend had a sad looking tomato plant out on her front step and I said to her my that plant looks like it needs some love lol.. she said here take it! lol.... so I did.. and I fed it milk and water and plenty sun upon my kitchen window ledge and it grew sooo big that I had no choice to put it outside.. which I didn't really want to do at first because it was late in the season and I didn't think it would bare fruit. It was spilling out from the planter it was in so instead of using it as an indoor plant which I wish I had done.. I planted it outside and it took up the entire garden! But no tomato's grew. It just made love with my Hops vine lol (cause it starts to twine together at some parts). I think I will be a better gardener next year.. I have no idea what I am doing. :D
http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c349/MysticWitch25/th_tomo.jpg

[subbacultcha]

I don't have one, but when I move somewhere with a garden it will be full of lovely veggies :)

[Allison]

We are growing a variety of odd, cold-hardy greens right now, and they are doing really well. We'll see how they fair after this hard freeze, but so far, so good.

Allison

[pete]

we are prepping a garden bed this fall.
probably 10ftX20ft, going to grow mostly greens and herbs.

[crystalmoon]

Hi i grew all my own herbs this year in tubs & planters on my patio outside the back door...i dont have garden I can dig veggie beds into but have been toying with the idea of growing alot of veg next year that can be grown in containers. Just got some books from Amazon all about it so heres hoping for alot of home grown produce next year :)

[northernstars]

As soon as I got home from the hospital in early June I planted several cool weather foods, but the moose came and ate most of them right away! I am going to try again next year and fence things in better. In the past the moose waited until the veggies were really ripe before they decided to eat them.

Sadly, Fruit trees don't produce here in Alaska. I do have a couple crab apple trees but they have done nothing but look pretty, however, the strawberries and other berries do well here!

Hopefully I will have recuperated much more and will be able to be more active with gardening next year. I am a master gardener and have taken extensive classes about gardening in Alaska and learned all the special tricks to have a very productive garden.

I miss not being in the garden, expecially now when I am finally going 100% raw!

[baltochef]

I have gardened in Alaska, the high desert, and here. Gardening on my own since 1979, but grew up with big gardens, rows and rows. Started doing boxed raised beds in 1986, and wouldn't do it any other way. You can do succession planting, companion planting, roots and verticals in the same box intensive gardening, cold frames, etc., the possibilities are endless. You don't need much space to have a garden. I am still working on extending the season for my green and leafy veggies, now that I am raw, they are more important to me than ever. I'm so sad.

Lavendula

Check out the books, Four Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables From Your Garden All Year Long & The New Organic Grower, both by Elliot Coleman..

There is a WEALTH of really useful practical information in both books for extending the seasons..

One of the best resources for the organic gardener & grower is the Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply Catalog & it's accompanying website www.GrowOrganic.com

Before I had to give my garden up I had a 9' wide x 29' long x 23" deep raised bed garden; sectioned into 4' x 4' blocks by the struts that kept the sides from bowing, a la Square Foot Gardening..

I put a 1' wide walkway down the center of the long sides using two sets of 2 x 6's..

In the 14 individual 4' x 4' squares I was able to feed myself & 6-10 other SAD eaters from June thru October out of this space using intensive raised bed techniques..

Keep the soil fertile with compost & leaf mold, and you can really crowd the plants together without harm..

Bruce

[RawHeaven]

Thanks all for sharing, now I really want to have a garden. After reading your experiences it seems more in reach now. :) In San Francisco, I grew herbs on my deck but that's about it. Now we have a big backyard and I want to take advantage of it. I will do some more research on having a container garden in the meantime, the possibilities seem endless.

[Dakini]

I have earthboxes like juliebove. They are great. It seems like everyplace I've ever lived has been cursed with gophers so short of constantly killing them, I now plant in plastic boxes. Check out earthbox.com, they're pretty cool.

[Lavendula]

We have always made our beds 12" deep x 3' wide and whatever length fit the space, and accessible from at least both sides. 3' is the widest they should be, so you can easily reach across, as the soil is never to be walked on in a boxed bed. And yes lots of compost. Our first ones were cut from 25' long redwood planks, we salvaged from a flood. That was an awesome garded. I have not used the veggies I am growing now in the way I am now. Here, I grew tooo many tomatoes and zuccinnis, and cucumbers before, that I couldn't wait for the garden to freeze, and did not want to extend the season by one more minute. We had tried several ideas for cold frames before, always using something salvaged. I had ideas when we first moved here, but none have come to fruition yet. I have even been looking for winter crop seeds online. Sounds like I'm a hopeless romantic about gardening.

[Portia2012]

I can remember the times me and my grandma gardened together. I want to have a outside garden one day. For now, I need to start an indoor one for herbs and such.


~Portia~

[scarletblizz]

dakini...I like the idea of earthbox. i went to their website and it looks great! But I didn't see the seeds. Where do I get the seeds? thanx :D

[Dakini]

Looking for seeds is such fun! This is the season to plan next springs garden. I've ordered from Seedsofchange.com (they're certified organic), cooksgarden.com also just bought from the local garden center.

If you're going to start with seeds, there are some really cool seed starter kits, that let you get a headstart on the season. I have the one from gardensalive.com, they're having a spend $50 get $25 off right now, too!

[tvillemom]

Hey all....I tried the square foot garden method, and really liked it. I had too much space in it though, because I measured wrong...so next year it will be even better. We also had a severe drought, and HIGH heat this summer, but I did get some great squash and tomatoes this year. I want to start composting...but I don't have any wood to build it with....can I just dig a hle into my garden area and fill with scraps and cover with alittle dirt?? Just wondering??

What do you do when there are no plants to be bought in the garden store?? I surely thought there would be some greens, but last time I looked, the only one's left looked plum pitiful....I guess they could perk back up, and I've never grown greens....any advice??

Wendi

[Lavendula]

You can buy winter gardening seed online right now. Maybe they even have them in the store there. Greens like kale, and roots that make good greens.
Yes to the idea of burying compost, look up double digging, my father used to do it. You dig and fill the first trench with compost before moving on.