Garden Poll

[grammafreddy]

Given today's very frightening economic woes and uncertainty, will you be planting food this year to feed yourself and your family??

Will you be doing anything differently? Taking out lawn to make room? Planting a bigger one? Planning to can more?

Never have, never will, no thank you????

What's your take on this?

[Queen K]

Good topic

Eight raised garden beds later, we still dug out an inground garden bed to try for new plants for 2009. Dug out clay and added heavy doses of horse manure, leaves and compost, dug it in twice and now I'm crossing my fingers that it will be good for this year. The snow bed on top right now is fantastic for decompositon so I read in an old national geographic mag.

Every year we fine tune what to plant, more bang for the buck so to speak. New Zealand spinach grew well into November and we let the butter lettuce self-seed everywhere.

Cherry tomatoes give tonnes.
Carrots did excellent in raised beds, I feel guilty that we didn't get them all out before the snow.
They may or may not be okay.

Sweet potatoes did fantastic two years ago but could find a supplier last year.

We topped up all the beds with horse manure and compost so I'm hoping for good results. And yes, raised beds dry out quicker but I use 5 rainbarrels to heip out in the watering dept.

[AlanH]

We expand something or other every year, after 15 years we have plenty of veggies to save hundreds a year off of the grocery bill (If not thousands, at the rate these kids grow) Am considering a couple fruit trees for this year, but I just hate having to spray them. I have been thinking of planting an apple, peach, and cherry tree, so I will have fruit within a couple years.

Nothing to do with the economy though, it just makes sense when you have land to grow a couple plants....and for the time it takes for maintaining the plants, it get's you and the kids outside doing what a family should be doing, teaching the kids how to be self sufficient... besides, it saves a lot of time having to mow for each bed the wife makes me dig up, less lawn is a good thing.

[usquebaugh]

I am planting veggies and herbs again this year. I love the smell of fresh herbs growing in the garden, but our last house had a dozen fruit and nut trees (pear, peach, apple, plum, cherry, walnut, and hazelnut). I really miss that.

I love being able to pick my salad right before I make it! Anything we don't grow ourselves, I buy at the Farmer's Market.

[ImRight]

AlanH

Stay away from cherry trees if you don't like spraying or eating worms. By far the easiest tree is the prune plum. plant it and forget it- they really are that easy. Apricots, apples, and pears are pretty good too.

[Glacier]

Carrots did excellent in raised beds, I feel guilty that we didn't get them all out before the snow.
They may or may not be okay.

I have been told that in our climate carrots and potatoes become sweeter if left in the ground during the winter.

Gardening is awesome. We used to some in the central interior, but the -4 degrees in the middle of July would wipe out the potatoes though. When we moved to Kamloops we were so amazed at how quickly things grew with the warm nighttime temperatures. Throwing a few watermelon seeds in the ground actually produced some ripe watermelons by the end of summer. I couldn't believe how quickly lettuce grew either.

[AlanH]

AlanH

Stay away from cherry trees if you don't like spraying or eating worms. By far the easiest tree is the prune plum. plant it and forget it- they really are that easy. Apricots, apples, and pears are pretty good too.

Shux... I like cherries for pies etc... (Cue sexual connotation remarks...) But yeah, a plum tree sounds good, or maybe an apricot tree.... hmmm.. Thanks much!

[Queen K]

I have an ancient apricot tree out front, probably the last of the original orchards downtown.

My dad rescued two peach trees from getting shredded and they produce peaches til the cows come home.

White seedless grapes grow like crazy downtown but my fiances property has them so no need to plant them here. Nothing like fresh grape juice, no additives. We just get out the juicer.

of all the berries I grew Tayberry has performed the best, a little disappointed with the Logan Berry.

Yesterday we used the last of the frozen rhubarb for a crumble dish.

This is the year to juice tomatoes to the max, with Lovage for flavour, nothing like it.

[Nom_de_Plume]

Yes planning on doing some planter box gardening again this year. Tomatoes green peppers etc.
Living in a basement suite kinda limits a person.

Oh but the strata rules at the condo I lived in previously did not under any circumstances allow you to grow produce on your deck or make use of any common land on the property to have a garden.
It was a pain in the butt.

[Queen K]

Thank you for confirming that Strata's are an evil incarnation.

One of my fav. stories is about a Burtch Ave address apt. building and the little ol' lady who used to live there....one day she said, "did you ever grow Roma tomatoes?" Then she said come take a look and voila, her two planters on a North facing balcony had two HUGE roma tomatoe plants covered in fruit. Roma plants get big under the right conditions.

Imagine if she lived under the repressive nazism that is Strata?


Our fav. herbs are African basil and lemon basil. A. Basil grows HUGE in the sun on a woody tree like system and gives tonnes of leaves for fresh cooking. Cilantro self seeds everywhere which can be a bonus, of course the seeds are coriander. We tried Lovage in the wrong spot so we'll get another root from dad, Lovage is excellent with tomatoes, esp. juicing. Our dried parsley is down the last few pinches, so next year we'll grow more and dry more. 2009 is the year to try growing Royal Purple Thai basil.

One year I witnessed a row of Chinese Yard Long Beans up in Rutland. They grow like crazy in the heat.

PLease if anyone has successfully grown Thai Lemon Grass talk about how you did here. Planter, inground? Did you have to buy it over the 'net or is there a local supplier? It's not expensive per se in the grocery store, I just want it fresh.

Part of the point to gardening around here is I know what it is NOT sprayed with, as in, NO sprays at all.

[two_shoes1mit]

AlanH

Stay away from cherry trees if you don't like spraying or eating worms. By far the easiest tree is the prune plum. plant it and forget it- they really are that easy. Apricots, apples, and pears are pretty good too.

Are you saying that apricots, apples and pears and the prune plum to not have to be sprayed?

[Queen K]

First of all, my shock at seeing a GrammaFreddy thread being revived from 2009 was palatable.

And Two_Shoes, umm, AlanH hasn't posted for a very, very long time. I hope you aren't waiting for an answer from him anyways.

Wow, I can't believe I posted in here so long ago. And not much has changed.

[just popping in]

I miss grammafreddy.

[two_shoes1mit]

:200: First of all, my shock at seeing a GrammaFreddy thread being revived from 2009 was palatable.

And Two_Shoes, umm, AlanH hasn't posted for a very, very long time. I hope you aren't waiting for an answer from him anyways.

Wow, I can't believe I posted in here so long ago. And not much has changed.

Alot of good information on the garden forum.