sow it, grow it, eat it ........grow your own organic food

Poststructural Pub
1

I thought it would be nice to have a topic on growing your own organic food.
its so easy to do and saves a lot of money, and can be done almost anywhere even in pots.

I started my own 100 sqmetres veggie garden, which has now growing cauliflower, broccoli, salads, rhubarb, mint, calendula and at home I have cherry tomatoes, basil, thyme, chili peppers.
this weekend more stuff will be sown like carrots, dwarf beans and what else crosses my mind.
I am on the hunt for autumn raspberries and blueberries still…maybe this weekend.
Part of the growing is done the square foot gardening method, the bigger plants get their own space.

what do you grow? how?
discuss :slight_smile: and hopefully this will inspire more people to grow their own organic foods…and save money, too.

berti

2

I’ve this year planted tomatoes, strawberries, three different kinds of peppers, and several herbs. Guess it’s a… salsa garden!

3

I’m a terrible gardener. I’ve had some luck lately
with upside-down container gardening (though
the deer sometimes still take a share). It helps
me because I can make better use of automatic
drip irrigation, as I can’t seem to remember to
water plants myself.

I heard on NPR recently that a San Francisco
entrepreneur started a business called MyFarm
that uses your land, but does the work for you
and leaves your harvest on your doorstep.
Brilliant. There are probably plenty of people
who want to eat fresh but are too busy/lazy
to garden.

4

I thought I recalled similar thread about this topic awhile back. But then I wouldn’t know a thing about a fresh fruit or veggie if it came up and introduced itself.

https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/growing-my-own-food/61598/1

5

This year my little organic garden has 8 tomato plants, carrots, half-runner beans, lettuce -which is perfect right now growing under an old piece of tobacco bed canvas, but will soon be too tough and onions. I need to fix some killed lettuce. I’d love to grow a big garden like we use to, but the dh is uncooperative.

I made some raised beds, mixed in some good compost with the red clay dirt and topped off with a couple of inches of compost, topped with semi-composted leaves as a weed barrier.

I’ve dared the dh to come near it with his Roundup or any other chemicals.

6

Ah, the joys of gardening in my area!

A friend of mine bought a house and some land several years ago, and then decided to plant a garden.

In his first year, everything he planted was eaten by wild animals.

In his second year, he fenced in the garden, but even then most of his garden was eaten by wild animals.

In his third year, he more than doubled the fencing, but some wild animals still managed to get through.

The deer, the mice, the woodchucks, the rabbits, and the many kinds of insects and grubs are troublesome.

For the same reasons, I gave up on gardening, long ago.

But, I now have wild, cotton tail rabbits which will let me get within about ten feet from them.

7

We are so tree-covered that not much will grow. Anyone have suggestions for useful veggies which can grow in shade?
(However, the eggs currently in the fridge are from the chickens that live, kindly cared for, in my daughter’s side yard. Although now that’s she’s changing abodes the chickens will not be going with her.)

8

We have carrots, beans, peas, corn, lemons, oranges, lettuce, and peppers.

I like the corn and carrots best. They taste wonderful, but are rather small. Any suggestions?

The lettuce of various types is an almost constant yield, giving us fresh salad every night. My wife is having a great time with this, which is wonderful since I am much too lazy.

9

cubbitt, what do you feed your veggies? what kind of soil do you have, what type of soil?
maybe they are lacking something and regular feeding might help.
how long has the soil been used for growing veggies and do you have some basic knowledge about crop rotating (if you are doing this longer?)

berti

10

As I said, this is my wife’s project. She replaced a good deal of the topsoil, but I don’t know that it is of a specific type. She only started this a few months ago, so we are just now starting to harvest some of what is growing. We don’t really know when to start pulling this stuff, but she did some research on the corn, and it seemed like now was the time. Very sweet, but as I said - small. I don’t believe she is feeding the plot. She grew flowers around the perimeter that are supposed to discourage pests, and that has been successful, although we do get some small green worms that seem to be fairly manageable. Don’t know anything about crop rotation, and I know she doesn’t either, so advice is welcome.

Thanks for the reply.

11

Some people used to plant this year’s vegetables over the spot of last year’s outhouse. The results were spectacular. Just, eww!

12

I didn’t think Human poo worked well, fertilizer-wise…

13

“I have always relied on the kindness of strangers.”
Blanche DuBois, A Streetcar Named Desire

14

Read Mel Bartholomew’s All New Square foot Gardening.

http://www.amazon.com/All-New-Square-Foot-Gardening/dp/B001TKKJ6A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244163012&sr=8-2

Changed my life. :slight_smile:

I’ve been a serious gardner for decades. No system I"ve seen remotely compares to this in terms of ease (once you get it set up the first year) and production.

Doc

15

cubitt, another good site for gardening info is You Bet Your Garden. You can look up specific stuff in the index and get answers to your questions.

I bet you picked your sweet corn too early. You do have to be patient and let the kernels get full. Or do you mean that the ears themselves are small? Could be the variety.

Personally, a favorite of mine is Silver Queen, second only to Candy Corn.