Does Anyone Have A Garden?

[Seagreen]

I love growing my own food. Growing up I had no experience with gardening at all but it has always been something that I felt drawn to. I started out growing things in pots but for many years everything would quickly, shrivel and die : / Eventually I start to research the plants I wanted to grow. Now my plants only die half of the time. I'm proud of my little garden and find it so therapeutic and rewarding.

What do you have in your garden?

At the moment we have tomato plants, eggplants, rhubarb, blueberries, raspberries, plums, green gages, passionfruit, pear trees, nectarine trees, apricots, mint, coriander, rosemary, fennel, basil, parsley, lettuce, chilli plants, lemons and a small but very fertile mandarin tree.

 

[Deleted member 20280]

When I was growing up my father always grew his own vegetables. I am moving on in just over two months time and am hoping to get a flat/apartment on the ground floor so I can at least have potted veg to be able to grow. I would ideally like to get my own allotment as I just love gardening.

 

[Intrepid]

It's winter here and the garden is silent. But last year we grew corn, bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, kale, romaine lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, chives and celery.

In the past I tried to start a garden, but couldn't focus enough to take care of it. And there were the squirrels that liked to raid it. I got frustrated and gave up.

Last year the garden got a little overrun with weeds, but the harvest was good. Our dog kept the squirrels away.

Yes, its been good to watch something grow.

 

[sun seeker]

I do, quite a large one where I grow all sorts of vegetables and fruits. I had to laugh at how startling this question was for a Canadian in January though! Mmm, passionfruit, now I'm envious!

 

[Seagreen]

I had to laugh at how startling this question was for a Canadian in January though! Mmm, passionfruit, now I'm envious!

Well actually the passionfruit aren't ripe at the moment.

 

[Queen Boudica]

I used to love gardening in the UK. I would grow veg in pots. Tomatoes, cucumber, aubergines, capsicum, strawberries and I loved flowers as well. It was my haven. I'd come back from work and just wonder round my tiny garden looking at all the stuff I had grown and noticing every new flower. And I would enjoy cooking my produce.

When we moved to Australia, I have lost all interest. I try, I buy seedlings but I don't plant them. Sometimes they get planted and then they die due to not being watered enough. Occasionally I do get something. I did plant a lemon and lime and orange tree and they fruit and that is nice. And the oregano seems to survive. I did get some tomatoes last year before the bugs got them and a few potatoes once. I have a fig tree but it never produces fruit. But my back is bad so managing anything in the garden is hard. And there are bugs the size of houses who take one bite and eat a whole plant in one go!

Best thing I've done is the chickens. I grow eggs. I have 10 now. A friend when she discovered I now have 10 chickens thought that was excessive. But I get loads of eggs and can make cup cakes and custard and chocolate mousse and loads of yummy stuff and I love eggs for breakfast. They have eaten everything in my back yard though!

 

[Friday]

I can grow tomatoes just about anywhere. Usually have between 5-50 plants for a few hundred pounds of fruit. If I'm pinching tops & staking I get about 25-40lbs (10-18ki) of fruit per plant. Cherries for salads and snacking, but mostly hybrids for pasta sauces, paste for curries, tomato jam (wicked good on turkey burgers), stewed thin tomatoes with bell pepper & onion for soup, or stewed thick wih bell pepper onion cillantro for Mexican. Fried green. I don't make catsup/ketchup. I have a recipe from the American colonies in the 1600s ... And it specifically apologizes for the tedium, hard work, low yield... And recommends a 3 day brandy wine binger with other housewives in order to make the process tolerable! Did make it once. Tasted exactly like Heinz. I save myself the grief & buy heinz for $1.50. ;)

Other plants I'm not so handy with. It's far more dependent on local conditions. In the PacNW I tend to grow sugar snap peas, a few kinds of beans, scraggly corn after a fashion more for the novelty (knee high by the 4th of July never happens), zukes, and a boatload of carrots. Strawberries and Blueberries do well here. So does rosemary. Basil & cillantro & parsley I can never have too much of. Still usually end up filling in from the market.

 

[rightkindofme]

Yay! I love my garden. Right now it is on the slow side, because it is January. For food I have: grapes, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, plums, cherries, oranges, three kinds of apples, parsley, asparagus, chives, artichoke, sage, rosemary, oregano, chocolate mint, spearmint, catmint, lemongrass, and passionfruit.

I have a lot of non-food plants too. Hydrangea is my one water-hog. I have exactly one water-super-consumer because the flowers make me so happy. I live in California--we have terrible droughts so mostly I keep my plants to things that can survive with only some water. Mums, jasmine, plumeria, geranium, roses, marigolds, aloe, iris, and I'm blanking on the rest. I have a lot of plants. I've been building the garden up for about six years now.

I love my garden!

 

[Friday]

@rightkindofme Oh, how I miss jasmine & bougainvillea!!!

 

[Queen Boudica]

Did make it once. Tasted exactly like Heinz. I

I used to work for Heinz in another life. My first career as a process engineer and I made tomato ketchup sometimes in the factory experimenting with recipe or process changes. That stuff is caustic. I'd get covered in it and it would burn my skin. One time the bottles is'd made for an experiment and was transporting to hq leaked on a car seat, really wrecked that car seat cover!

I used to make green tomato chutney with my tomatoes. Best ever, much better than any of the pickles I made at Heinz.

I remember having to do tasting of pickles and ketchup first thing in morning at Heinz. Set you up for the day, all that acid! But worse was the baby food. Ugh revolting - poor babies!

 

[NarcSis]

Right now I'm growing snow drifts but this past summer I grew tomatoes, green pepper, yellow beans,corn, strawberries & I've planted a blackberry that I hope will take.

My mom always had a garden growing up, we had carrots, lettuce, potatoes, radishes, rhubarb, corn and green/yellow beans. I remember having to get manure from a local farm - another memory that won't let go, lol.

 

[Ronin]

Tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, cacti. Lettuce I gave up on after worms ate it with such pride. I don't tend to argue with insect claiming their stuff, if it's their it's not mine I try with something else.

This thread reminded me I keep wanting a banana tree and keep forgetting aaall about it. I love y'all ;D