Do you garden, farm or otherwise grow your own food? What do you and/or DH grow? We have the usual herbs, a few fruit trees (avocado, lemon, mango) and tomatoes. A few veggies like sweet potato, onions. Anyone have favorite resources? DH is doing it as a hobby but he made some amazing salsa the other day and now I want to invest in setting up a bunch of mini crops and/or make the salsa a very very small business venture. I don't know where to start (online/offline) but I don't want to buy stuff unless I'm sure it will work. I'm thinking about what to do ensure healthy soil and what you throw on it.
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We are going to start this year. We just bought a house with a nice size lot to be able to do it. My MIL has always gardened and its unreal everything she has grown. We will start small. I really want to just grow things that I buy regularly like lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries and some herbs and expand from there.
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Our garden has been so trial and error. I planted squash last year and it grew so big and took over, my mistake! This year I plan on things we regularly consume like cucumbers, bell peppers, garlic, onion, lettuces. I also have chives that flowered last year and attracted the bees. I loved it, since we are trying to have a bee and butterfly friendly spot (we plant wildflowers too).
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I plant a garden every year and promptly don't water and kill it. Wash repeat.
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We have 3 small raised beds alongside our house, but it kept us in fresh veggies all last summer! The biggest game changer for us were soaker hoses on a timer, otherwise I doubt it would have survived my lack of attention.
I plan to do roma tomatoes on a trellis, squash and zuchinni, bell peppers and green beans. Maybe peas. Then when the squash die off will plant okra. My okra didn't take off until August last year and kept producing until October!
As for soil, we do our own compost we mix with organic soil bought at a local store. I don't fertilize but added more compost and soil mixture when I planted the okra.
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If you've got mango and avocado trees, you're probably in zone 10 or so, yes? If so, don't take advice from people who aren't, because next to none of it will apply to you! Other than that, find your local extension service and see what they recommend. It's probably best to start with a raised bed and containers because it's easier to control the soil.
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@honeybear: I don't know what zone but I just found our local extension at the university. Thanks! Heading in the right direction.
Also, thanks for those who responded! It is inspiring to hear what you grow. I feel like we are the only ones of our friends who do this. It all started with a worm bin that was gifted to me around Christmas 7 years ago and it really started this slow but gradual change. -
We have a five raised beds and last year we grew tomatoes, kale, chard, collards, zucchini, sweet potatoes and cucumbers. We are building ten more raised beds and tilling a big plot for this year!! We're excited but worried about managing everything. We are hoping to eventually have a high diversity market garden at some point.
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For the past few years we've grown a few things - lettuce, tomatoes, and herbs, mostly. The problem is that I like planting and growing them but then often forget to harvest, the lettuce especially usually goes to seed before I actually use it. Mostly the tomatoes go to squirrels and we just end up using the herbs.
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@erinbaderin: @Orchid: @Tanjowen: How did you guys learn? Books? People? Websites? Classes? DH is making it up as he goes along, a few library books and a friend taught me a few basics a long time ago.
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We garden and did quite a variety of plants last year. This year we will do what worked best last year. We did quite a bit of canning last fall.
DH watches a lot of videos on you tube and reads online to learn. He also asks questions at a local garden store. I then learn from what he tells me.
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We enjoy growing from seed. Our staples are large heirloom tomatoes, pumpkins, and sugarsnap peas. Every year, DH always tries to grow large sunflowers, but hasn't been too successful, but the birds still benefit from the seeds.
This year, we're also sowing for the first time (fingers crossed) carrots, leeks, Asian cucumber, and Malbar spinach. DD likes cherry tomatoes, but I prefer buying those from the garden shop, along with sweet peas (non-edible) - I love the smell
Our established edible plants include: rhubarb, chives, oregano, elderberry tree (tons of berries), plum tree (that has yet to fruit), black locust tree (I hear the flowers are supposed to be edible), lilac bushes (flowers are edible), apple tree, strawberries, wild strawberries, the always cropping stinging nettle (yummy soup), and ground elder that I can't seem to eradicate (edible when newly sprouted).
I'm thinking about stepping up our gardening game and adding more gardening boxes and actually covering the plants that should be covered. We do all the necessary prep, but we're lazy gardeners once the plants have been transplanted. I haven't been able to focus on gardening the past few years due to school work - I'm kind of excited for the new growing season
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A sweet treat that I didn't know was edible are elberberry flowers. I cheat and use watered down boxed pancake batter. I like to snip the stems after frying. Then add sugar and cinnamon
Here's a recipe: http://www.lilvienna.com/elderflower-fritters/
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@808love: So I was brand new to the idea and used this website for our garden:
http://www.vegetable-gardening-online.com/raised-bed-vegetable-garden.htmlIt was helpful in term of layout. From there I googled each specific plant on how to treat it and what to expect. Part of it was a lot of trial and error!
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@808love: we have some good friends who have an organic farm and we've learned a lot from them. Our extension office is a great resource too. Books, and google!
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@ALV91711: I canned mango jam but I was thinking about canning the salsa. @Tanjowen: Thanks so much!
So much inspiration here. -
http://www.johnnyseeds.com is the best company for quality seeds. I am still planting my black-seeded-simpson-lettuce seeds that I bought in 2014 because they sent me so many, and they're still growing. The website has some resources under Grower's Library.
Look for resources that are specific to where you live. Youtube videos are a good one for me. Also, can find some interesting charts on pinterest about what grows best next to each other.
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@JessyMess: Is there a specific video series/vlogger that you follow?
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@808love: Trial and error. Basically I just plant seedlings from the garden centre and try to remember to water them regularly.
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@erinbaderin: That's what we have been doing.
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