Gardens

mckayleesmom wrote: Anyone planning one this summer....I am....but I have never done one before so I am nervous. When is the best time to start planting???

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Yes, as long as we have at least 3x3 ft of ground... i've planted a few things. lol

This year the one I'm planning is going to be HUGE!! I've already started off the herbs that I will have... I have some that I'm going to put in pots outside, I've got these giant cememnt planters that I'm going to use for herbs and edible flowers.

Outside, I'm going to have 6 or 7 tomato plants, I'm going to have a few rows of potatoes, carrots, spinach, celery, garlic and onions. Last year I had 2 pepper plants.. I got a few from them..I might try and do those again. I'm going to have 2 or 3 cucumber plants, 2 or 3 zucchini plants, and some pickling cucumber plants. Along my back fence i'm going to have some peas, and beans trained up against it. I'm going to have some rhubarb out there too, and I'm going to try and put out strawberries. Last year the squirrels got all the berries.

I'm also going to have a few rows of radishes... although the ones last year I had more yield from the darn pods and leaves than the actual radishes themselves..so I might do that again. Radish leaves are excellent in salads.. and the pods are delicious.

I did buy some corn seed though... I'm going to try and plant those, see where it goes. It will be the first time I've done that, so I'm not expecting too much.

Hopefully the fence I'm going to put up around it keeps the dog out.

Here, we're in zone 5 I think... so I can start stuff off indoors in march or so... (some mid-february) and plant outdoors by the end of may.

mommy~to~a~bunch replied: I want to try a garden this year too. I don't have a very green thumb, I'm afraid . We want to grow our own veggies . We'll get some chickens for eggs and meat as well.

BAC'sMom replied: Yes we are! I'll start on it this weekend.

To answer your other question depends on what zone you live in.

http://www.garden.org/zipzone/

mckayleesmom replied:
Me either....thats why Im nervous..We want to try this year because of how expensive veggies are getting..yikes.

Rocky...How do I find out what Zone Im in?

mckayleesmom replied:
Thanks

mckayleesmom replied: Ok...my zone is 7b....Is it suppose to tell me a good month to start or do I just wait for the right temp?

Calimama replied: Nope. DH reallly wants a vegetable garden. He also wants a motorcycle, a new baby, and me to get a tattoo. None of those are happening either.

mckayleesmom replied: I think I might talk dh into making me some of those raised beds for planting.

BAC'sMom replied:
It's the temp of the soil that you go by.

Here is another great site that can answer tons of gardening questions. I am posting the soil temp link. But you can click on gardening for other info.

http://www.almanac.com/garden/begin/soiltemp.php

lisar replied: I am going to plant a veggie garden.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: What I did last year, instead of a raised bed... I just had some old tires that I stacked, and painted with latex paint... they looked "cute", like planters, AND 1) had the benefit of being made from materials found anywhere and most likely for free... environmentally friendly, I guess... and 2) the tires actually keep some warmth in the ground... so you can plant a little early, AND keep your crop a little longer, since the earth inside the tires doesn't get as cold as quickly.

Not sure I'm doing that this year though.

coasterqueen replied: Yes we will, but it will be a few months yet. We have three good sized garden boxes with organic soil to grow in. Dh wants to add a strawberry patch this year and I would like to add a smaller garden box for the girls to do their own garden as well.

I never had a green thumb when it came to vegetable gardening either. This is our third attempt at gardening. We tried the first time a long time ago just in our regular clay soil and it didn't work well. Then we waited a few years and two years ago we built the raised garden beds -- the garden went so so, but then last year it went better. We got more out of it. We have a lot to learn and hopefully every year will get better and we'll produce better stuff.

coasterqueen replied:
We did that, as I mentioned below. It cost us about $100 per box with materials and organic soil. The first year we built two, then last year we added one more. We might be doing that again this year.

3xsthefun replied: Yes, we are going try plant a vegetable garden this year.

PrairieMom replied: I love love love gardening, and can't wait to get out and work in the dirt! unfortunately, our garden is under about 2 feet of snow right now. I won't be able to get out and plant until mid may. I have my worm farm going making organic fertilizer for me, and I am planning on starting some seedlings soon, but I don't even think I can do that until march.
We have raspberries, blue berries, rhubarb, strawberries, and asparagus that we do every year, those all come back.
I also plan to do peas, onions, corn, a few tomatoes, cucumbers and some dill.
I am way into the organic gardening thing this year.

PrairieMom replied:
I don't remember what zone you are in, you want to make sure that the danger of frost is past. what kinds of things are you going to plant?

CantWait replied:
Thanks for reminding me about the radish leaves Rocky. We grew tons of radishes last year and I totally forgot that you can eat them.

Last year I planted cherry tomatoes, green peppers (which didn't yield any peppers), radishes and green onions. I won't be here this year to start a garden, but next year for sure.

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
Cut them before they get too big..they get a little "hairy" when they get bigger.

Cece00 replied: I am going to try it...we'll see how it goes

CantWait replied:


I forgot we also have a strawberry patch that was there when we moved in. This year we had strawberries for just about 2 months, daily. They were so GOOD.

jacobsmama replied: We always plant a huge garden and I love it. Water, sunlight and love it will grow!! Corny I know but true.

We plant:

Corn (always do at least 3 rows or it won't be good)
green pepper (always get TONS)
Tomatoes (LOTS)
Jalepenos (for DH lol)
cucumbers (need lots of room to climb and spread)
Cabbage heads

I also have a strawberry patch in a big tractor tire!

THey say to plant BY mothers day.