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April 30, 2009 03:42 PM
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I have two Square Foot Gardens at the moment, and two large flowerbeds. I grew up with a minimum 30' x 30' garden; at one point my parents had three gardens between their two properties that totaled about an acre.
I have several reasons for this. When I was a kid, it was because of severe mold allergies which made it impossible for me to eat processed food, due to the possibility of mold spores.
Now, it's so that we can eat better: organic food, fresh in that I pick it minutes before we eat it; and heirloom and European market varieties that are impossible to buy in this country, but are an essential reason that food seems to taste better in Europe. You really can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, so you'd better plant the right kind of seeds.
Currently up:
French Breakfast radishes
European Reds and Greens mix from Renee's Garden Seeds (Dutch Redina, Batavian Nevada, French Cardinale)
Renee's Sweet Greens and Reds Farmer's Market Blend, a cut and come-again mix with Tango, Little Gem, Cimarron and Outredgeous.
Lacinto Blue kale
Bright Lights chard
The herbs that made it through the winter are:
Provence lavender
True French tarragon
True Greek oregano
Sage
Lemon Thyme
Chives
Spearmint
Scallions--a red and green blend from Renee
Sweet onions: Candy Red
I'll be adding marjoram, rosemary, thyme and Genovese Basil (Profumatissima) and possibly cilantro. The herbs take about 2.5 squares in my garden, except the basil, which goes around the tomatoes.
I've also got a Heatwave Blend lettuce from The Cook's Garden which I'll put in after it's too warm for the European and Farmer's mixes. It has Black Seeded Simpson, Little Caesar, Matchless, Salad Bowl, Lolla Rosa and Royal Oak Leaf. I'll do the first two mixes again in the fall, and straight Buttercrunch.
Yet to plant:
Tomatoes:
Flame (striped)
Golden Roma (paste; yellow)
Currant (tiny cherry tomato that's not actually a tomato)
Siberian (mature in 45 days)
Rutgers (good slicer)
Yellow Pear
Peppers:
Boldog Paprika
Sweet Habanero
an apple-scented sweet pepper
Numex Twilight (too hot to eat; will plant among roses)
Delicata squash, the sweetest I've ever tasted
Ronde de Nice zucchini, the round French type
Yellow and green Haricots Verts pole beans (Renee's)
Yellow, green, and purple "green" beans (Renee's)
Annie Sugarsnap peas (shortest season; will do in the fall)
Possibly Candy melons if I can find seeds; Chartenais if I can't.
This fall I have Babette carrots (Renee's) and a Jewel-toned beet blend, which includes striped Chioggia, Golden, and Red Sangria (Renee's again).
I have 32 varieties of antique and English roses, with species geranimums, lavender, bulbs and other perennials interplanted (and soon-to-be ornamental peppers). These take almost no effort at all.
My kids want a Moonlight garden, so I'm planting night-scented stock (smells like vanilla-almond), night-scented flox; Four o'clocks; and candytuft. I'll also be putting some nasturiums in with the vegetables. And they want a striped morning glory that I don't know where it will be safe to plant without strangling something else.
This all sounds very complex, but it's not. Antique roses thrive on benign neglect, and Square Foot gardening takes most of the work out of it: most of the weeding/cultivating/thinning isn't necessary. I really need at least two more SFG's to grow everything I really need.
To answer your other questions:
This garden will provide most of our produce through the summer. We'll probably have plenty of tomatoes to can/freeze, but not enough of anything else. That's why I really need a couple of more plots.
If I would quadruple the space I have, giving me eight plots, I might have enough to feed another family.
In my city, there have several projects over the years for urban gardening. Currently there are at least 18.
Source(s):
http://www.squarefootgardening.com
http://www.reneesgarden.com
http://www.cooksgarden.com
www.antiqueroseemporium.com/
http://www.ces.purdue.edu/CES/Marion/ccgp/
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I'm trying again this year. I'm not doing this to supplement going to the grocery store. It's more to complement the food I'm buying. I prefer to have fresh and good tasting vegetables, and you can't get those in the grocery stores here.
Odds are, I'm going to spend more than the physical benefits I will receive. I can no doubt get tomatoes and other produce cheaper from the store. But having a lack of pesticides, a better taste, and fresher product is worth the extra cost to me.
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This year we've got a lots of tomatos about ready to put in the ground (Mike made a quick-and-dirty coldframe to start the seeds), lots of squash and peppers. I want to experiment with a few rows of corn this year, and we always plant a few melons and pumpkins. I want to add more lettuce and cucumbers this year. We also have an herb garden, strawberries, and basil. Mike also did a great winter garden this year, from which we had broccoli and cabbage.
We can't feed one family exclusively from the garden, but with the chickens providing eggs we could provide for ourselves pretty well. We swap produce between neighbors, too, both in raw form and processed into pickles, canned goods and dinners.
We were both raised with gardens providing a good deal of the household food, so this isn't an odd lifestyle for us. Learning to make our own tomato sauce and pickles has been a matter of re-learning and looking up the recipes handed down to us, as well as incorporating new information.
One of the more interesting innovations in urban produce is myfarmsf.com Homeowners can have their yards evaluated for a garden. If they agree, someone will come in and plant the garden, stop by once a week to maintain it and harvest it, and leave a box of veggies for you from the garden. The rest is shared on a subscription basis with other people, who have signed up for a once-a-week delivery of organic produce (subscription gardening).
Some subscription produce delivery also includes meat or fish. The additional link below is to Eatwell farm, another subscription garden model. It's pretty interesting stuff.
Source(s):
http://www.myfarmsf.com/our-urban-farm-services.html
http://www.eatwell.com/community/index.html
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I have been growing things since I was a little boy. One of the first things that I planted was an avocado seed. I was about 8 or 9. I put it in a tin can under a leaky faucet. My parents were amazed that it grew. They gave me some carrots seeds and we had carrots in 90 days.
I have a farm now, so I grow a lot of stuff. I like to grow stuff in big tubs and ice chests that you can buy from WalMart, KMart and Home Depot. At this moment, I have okra, purple beans, edible ginger, cherry tomatoes, green peppers, green onions, strawberries, blueberries and leeks, and mizuna growing in tubs.
Pineapples are in the ground.
Strawberries, and pineapple starts in cans
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_xMf8wKQv3Ro/SfnkVUDQCYI/AAAAAAAAAFo/W3lWa1UgjpY/s720/615087-R1-21-4A.JPG
A pineapple
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_xMf8wKQv3Ro/SfnkVCqiaxI/AAAAAAAAAFg/vsUIvxsVSKA/s720/615087-R1-15-10A.JPG
A little bit of broccoli
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_xMf8wKQv3Ro/SfnkU1rM4TI/AAAAAAAAAFY/iOhCt3n8aXQ/s720/615087-R1-02-23A.JPG
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I also grow tomatoes using a chain link fence. These are fabulous for tying up tomato plants.
Purely as a hobby. I mean we eat what we grow but don't produce enough to even feed ourselves a couple days of the year.
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Answered Question
Mahalo is adding a tip to all questions that don't offer a tip.
Do you grow a garden?
What plants are you growing?
Do you grow a garden for a hobby?
Can you feed more than one family from the produce of your garden?
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1218309/famine_in_america_why_99_of_the_us.html?cat=3
By 2000, only 2% of labor earn a living in agriculture.
Food is transported to cities not grown in cities. Do you know of any projects where food is grown in the city.
Do you grow a garden for a hobby?
Can you feed more than one family from the produce of your garden?
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1218309/famine_in_america_why_99_of_the_us.html?cat=3
By 2000, only 2% of labor earn a living in agriculture.
Food is transported to cities not grown in cities. Do you know of any projects where food is grown in the city.
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Best Answer Chosen by Asker
| April 30, 2009 04:39 PM |
I have several reasons for this. When I was a kid, it was because of severe mold allergies which made it impossible for me to eat processed food, due to the possibility of mold spores.
Now, it's so that we can eat better: organic food, fresh in that I pick it minutes before we eat it; and heirloom and European market varieties that are impossible to buy in this country, but are an essential reason that food seems to taste better in Europe. You really can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, so you'd better plant the right kind of seeds.
Currently up:
French Breakfast radishes
European Reds and Greens mix from Renee's Garden Seeds (Dutch Redina, Batavian Nevada, French Cardinale)
Renee's Sweet Greens and Reds Farmer's Market Blend, a cut and come-again mix with Tango, Little Gem, Cimarron and Outredgeous.
Lacinto Blue kale
Bright Lights chard
The herbs that made it through the winter are:
Provence lavender
True French tarragon
True Greek oregano
Sage
Lemon Thyme
Chives
Spearmint
Scallions--a red and green blend from Renee
Sweet onions: Candy Red
I'll be adding marjoram, rosemary, thyme and Genovese Basil (Profumatissima) and possibly cilantro. The herbs take about 2.5 squares in my garden, except the basil, which goes around the tomatoes.
I've also got a Heatwave Blend lettuce from The Cook's Garden which I'll put in after it's too warm for the European and Farmer's mixes. It has Black Seeded Simpson, Little Caesar, Matchless, Salad Bowl, Lolla Rosa and Royal Oak Leaf. I'll do the first two mixes again in the fall, and straight Buttercrunch.
Yet to plant:
Tomatoes:
Flame (striped)
Golden Roma (paste; yellow)
Currant (tiny cherry tomato that's not actually a tomato)
Siberian (mature in 45 days)
Rutgers (good slicer)
Yellow Pear
Peppers:
Boldog Paprika
Sweet Habanero
an apple-scented sweet pepper
Numex Twilight (too hot to eat; will plant among roses)
Delicata squash, the sweetest I've ever tasted
Ronde de Nice zucchini, the round French type
Yellow and green Haricots Verts pole beans (Renee's)
Yellow, green, and purple "green" beans (Renee's)
Annie Sugarsnap peas (shortest season; will do in the fall)
Possibly Candy melons if I can find seeds; Chartenais if I can't.
This fall I have Babette carrots (Renee's) and a Jewel-toned beet blend, which includes striped Chioggia, Golden, and Red Sangria (Renee's again).
I have 32 varieties of antique and English roses, with species geranimums, lavender, bulbs and other perennials interplanted (and soon-to-be ornamental peppers). These take almost no effort at all.
My kids want a Moonlight garden, so I'm planting night-scented stock (smells like vanilla-almond), night-scented flox; Four o'clocks; and candytuft. I'll also be putting some nasturiums in with the vegetables. And they want a striped morning glory that I don't know where it will be safe to plant without strangling something else.
This all sounds very complex, but it's not. Antique roses thrive on benign neglect, and Square Foot gardening takes most of the work out of it: most of the weeding/cultivating/thinning isn't necessary. I really need at least two more SFG's to grow everything I really need.
To answer your other questions:
This garden will provide most of our produce through the summer. We'll probably have plenty of tomatoes to can/freeze, but not enough of anything else. That's why I really need a couple of more plots.
If I would quadruple the space I have, giving me eight plots, I might have enough to feed another family.
In my city, there have several projects over the years for urban gardening. Currently there are at least 18.
Source(s):
http://www.squarefootgardening.com
http://www.reneesgarden.com
http://www.cooksgarden.com
www.antiqueroseemporium.com/
http://www.ces.purdue.edu/CES/Marion/ccgp/
| Asker's Rating: |
• We use square garden for strawberries and another for herbs. You can create a lattice for vines to climb. The amount of vegetables and herbs produced in a square garden is amazing. Very little space is wasted.
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Other Answers (4)
April 30, 2009 03:57 PM
Living in DC, I don't have a lot of room in my yard. But I started growing a summer garden last year. I grew tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, green beans, and various herbs. I'm trying again this year. I'm not doing this to supplement going to the grocery store. It's more to complement the food I'm buying. I prefer to have fresh and good tasting vegetables, and you can't get those in the grocery stores here.
Odds are, I'm going to spend more than the physical benefits I will receive. I can no doubt get tomatoes and other produce cheaper from the store. But having a lack of pesticides, a better taste, and fresher product is worth the extra cost to me.
Permalink | Report
Reply
April 30, 2009 04:42 PM
We've had a garden for years, and this year is bigger than normal. It's kind of a hobby, but becoming more of a lifestyle. The intent was originally to enjoy better tasting produce than can be found in the grocery store. We've been pretty successful at this, so the garden keeps getting bigger and bigger, and we've added different "experimental" plants each year. This year we've got a lots of tomatos about ready to put in the ground (Mike made a quick-and-dirty coldframe to start the seeds), lots of squash and peppers. I want to experiment with a few rows of corn this year, and we always plant a few melons and pumpkins. I want to add more lettuce and cucumbers this year. We also have an herb garden, strawberries, and basil. Mike also did a great winter garden this year, from which we had broccoli and cabbage.
We can't feed one family exclusively from the garden, but with the chickens providing eggs we could provide for ourselves pretty well. We swap produce between neighbors, too, both in raw form and processed into pickles, canned goods and dinners.
We were both raised with gardens providing a good deal of the household food, so this isn't an odd lifestyle for us. Learning to make our own tomato sauce and pickles has been a matter of re-learning and looking up the recipes handed down to us, as well as incorporating new information.
One of the more interesting innovations in urban produce is myfarmsf.com Homeowners can have their yards evaluated for a garden. If they agree, someone will come in and plant the garden, stop by once a week to maintain it and harvest it, and leave a box of veggies for you from the garden. The rest is shared on a subscription basis with other people, who have signed up for a once-a-week delivery of organic produce (subscription gardening).
Some subscription produce delivery also includes meat or fish. The additional link below is to Eatwell farm, another subscription garden model. It's pretty interesting stuff.
Source(s):
http://www.myfarmsf.com/our-urban-farm-services.html
http://www.eatwell.com/community/index.html
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April 30, 2009 05:50 PM
In 1974, I was living in Portales, New Mexico, in an upstairs apartment next to an alley. The parking area was hard packed from years of parking. Using a pick, I dug out an eight by four section of that area and planted tomatoes. I grew big beef steak tomatoes and they were great. People driving by used to stop and stare at these big tomatoes growing out of a parking lot. I have been growing things since I was a little boy. One of the first things that I planted was an avocado seed. I was about 8 or 9. I put it in a tin can under a leaky faucet. My parents were amazed that it grew. They gave me some carrots seeds and we had carrots in 90 days.
I have a farm now, so I grow a lot of stuff. I like to grow stuff in big tubs and ice chests that you can buy from WalMart, KMart and Home Depot. At this moment, I have okra, purple beans, edible ginger, cherry tomatoes, green peppers, green onions, strawberries, blueberries and leeks, and mizuna growing in tubs.
Pineapples are in the ground.
Strawberries, and pineapple starts in cans
A pineapple
A little bit of broccoli
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Reply
April 30, 2009 06:16 PM
I grow some container vegetables on the front stoop. Primarily peppers. I also grow tomatoes using a chain link fence. These are fabulous for tying up tomato plants.
Purely as a hobby. I mean we eat what we grow but don't produce enough to even feed ourselves a couple days of the year.
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