Do you have a vegetable garden?

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  • Muggsmagee
    Muggsmagee Posts: 10
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    This is what I learned with my pear trees...we tend to want to pick the pears and eat them straight from the tree like apples. But pears don't mature the same as apples. You can tell when pears are mature on the branch when you lift the fruit horizontally and the stem breaks away easily. The fruit actually ripens from the inside out, so once you think it is ready (on the tree), it is usually too late. Pick these hard pears and bring them inside (room temperature) for a week or so and they should be ready to eat. :0)
    Come to think of it, i have a pear tree in the yard as well...but the pears never ripen. I think something is wrong with it, but I'm not exactly a horticulturalist...

    Not knowing the variety of pear, but some pears need to be just left to ripen indoors, maybe for a month or more

    Or they could just be cooking or perry pears

    We rent, and my fiance had the house before i moved in, kept telling me how annoying the one tree in the backyard is because it drops little hard things for months starting in August...turned out to be pears lol. They seem to get biggest and closest to ripe in October, i was thinking bosc..they're also brown-skinned? Unless that's just whatever is wrong with it manifesting itself in the skin as well. I tried to let them ripen indoors but only got one that was even close to edible, and that took 2 weeks. My cousin has a bachelor's degree in agriculture and said it may just need some food spikes...the one sort-of-edible pear i got was actually quite good, but still hard. Maybe they're supposed to be hard? Although i thought pears were usually supposed to have some kind of softness to them.

    I also have a crabapple bush/tree that I'd like to utilize, if i can figure out what to do with them.
  • srv524
    srv524 Posts: 1,363 Member
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    I had to buy another 4-5 plants because mine died off...and the ones that have survived are smaller and barely hanging on. It's been averaging 60-70s so I'm sure that's a factor.
  • amwbox
    amwbox Posts: 576 Member
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    Don't have as much space as I used to, but planted radishes, carrots, onions, peppers, tomatoes, zuchini, and various herbs. A LOT of basil, to be turned into a massive pile of pesto eventually.
  • MelsAuntie
    MelsAuntie Posts: 2,833 Member
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    Yes, 220 x 140 ft, including a greenhouse.
  • allotmentgardener
    allotmentgardener Posts: 248 Member
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    Yes, I have two allotments. Love gardening! :)

    Edit now I have more time to add:

    At allotments I have -
    Blackberries, leeks, red onions, white onions, shallots, garlic, broan beans, french beans, rhubarb, spinach, beetroot, courgettes, chard, and carrots
    At home waiting to go to allotment I have -
    Extra french beans, extra beetroot, swede, tomatoes and spare cucumber
    In garden at home I have -
    5 apple trees, a cherry tree, rhubarb, cucumber, tomatoes, spring onions, lettuce, mint, chives, sage, oregano

    Love gardening, love eating :D
  • Muggsmagee
    Muggsmagee Posts: 10
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    My gardens have taken over my yard. Quite literally, our entire front yard has been turned into an edible landscape this Spring. What started out as an occasional hobby and a few raised beds has turned into a passionate venture. And gardening is no joke when it comes to workouts. Lifting, squatting, lunging, stretching, edging, raking, shoveling, all the walking, etc. I am dead to the world by the end of the day...and I notice I get a much better night's sleep when I work in the gardens. Like the OP said...it IS therapy! There is a joy to gardening, unlike running or spin classes, for me. The bonus is sharing the works of your labor with friends and neighbors throughout the season.

    I have in my collective vegetable and herb gardens:

    19 varieties of mostly heirloom tomatoes
    6 types of summer squash/zucchini
    purple and blue potatoes
    6 varieties of dry cooking beans (1 bush)
    6 varieties of snap beans (4 bush)
    8 varieties of sweet peppers (pimento, chocolate, orange, green, yellow monster, purple, red, albino)
    8 types of Hot Peppers (cayenne, jalapeno, aurora, cherry, tequila sunrise, annaheim, ancho, Hungarian wax)
    Ground Cherries, Giant Cape Gooseberries and Tomatillos
    3 types of spinach (one is a climber called Malabar)
    8 types of wonderful lettuce (mesculin mix, romaine mixes, butterhead, freckles...)
    7 types of strawberries (you can never have enough!) (Honeoye, pineberry, jewel, yellow alpine, Winona, Earliglow, everbearer)
    red, Vidalia and yellow onions
    5 varieties of basil
    2 types of oregano
    2 Parsley
    4 varieties of Nasturtiums
    dill, cilantro, tarragon, sweet mace, sweet marjoram, lavender, German chamomile, lemon balm, Echinacea, 3 types of bee balm
    6 winter squash (acorn, Jahrdale (sp?) and another small pie type, blue hubbard, red warty, jack b little)
    3 melons (cantaloupe, sugar baby watermelon, moon and stars)
    12+ varieties of sunflowers
    3 types of peas
    5 types of carrots
    fennel, radishes, parsnip, broccoli, white and purple cauliflower, Brussels sprouts,
    5 types of cucumber (jelly melon, Mexican gherkin, lemon cuke, straight 8, and one popular pickling cuke)
    3 types of okra (2 green, 1 red)
    collards, 3 types of edible kale, giant red mustard, turnips, green cabbage, baby bok choi
    sweet potatoes (we started the slips this winter from potatoes we grew last year)
    Black beauty eggplant, pumpkin on a stick, Malaysian eggplant
    Altrei Coffee (it is a lupin that is grown as a coffee replacer)
    4 types of Amaranth
    mini indian corn (not edible, but dang it they are so cute!)
    rhubarb, horseradish, chives
    artichoke
    5 or more varieties of chard
    Chocolate Mint and Spearmint

    Trees/Bushes/Vines:

    2 Grapes (White and Red for fresh eating)
    6 Kiwi (4 types/ 2 males)
    2 Asian Pear trees
    4 Cherry Trees (Rainier, Bing, Montmorency, and a yellow cherry (forgot the name))
    2 Apple (Winesap, Honeycrisp)
    4 Plum (Yellow, Weeping Red, Purple, and a nectaplum)
    1 Sweetpit Apricot
    a patch of thornless Blackberries
    a patch of Tayberries and yellow raspberries
    2 Flat Wonderful Peach trees
    1 American Serviceberry
    2 Hazelnut
    1 Crabapple

    And this doesn't begin to cover my perennial flower beds, ornamental and shade trees. Like I said...it's a passion! And I do this on 2/3 of an acre. :0)
  • Faemourn
    Faemourn Posts: 2
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    Oh, yes! I have always done potted herbs but have decided to try a garden for the first time this Spring. We have tomatoes of many kinds, fingerling potatoes, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, several types of peppers, and strawberries. I had onions but they died immediately when I planted them :(. Everything else has just started blooming mini veggies.

    I fell in love with succulents as well and have started a few pots of those. Other than that I have chives, rosemary, thyme, and basil. Next year perhaps I will actually try flowers, bushes, grasses, and landscape in the front. This is all completely new to me. I have never gardened before and am overwhelmed when I think of landscaping.
  • bravosixone
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    I've been growing a fine garden for the past 4-5 years, but unfortunately, this year, I'm injured, SO with a lot of help from pinterest, facebook, and friends, I've got a small container garden on and around my back porch. Roma and Champion tomatoes, butter leaf and red sail lettuce, butternut, spaghetti, and yellow crookneck squash, sugar snap peas, and an eggplant in a topsy turvey because hey why the hell not.

    We also have a gravenstien apple tree, a winter apple tree, comes in handy for makin pies for the holidays, a multi-splice apple with northern spice, red gravenstien, and honey crisp, a shiro plum tree, an absolutely worthless pear tree, and concord grapes.
  • Amitysk
    Amitysk Posts: 705 Member
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    I love my little garden- Just a little 6'x 4' plot. This year I am growing

    Tomatoes
    Ancho peppers
    Chili peppers
    Oregano
    Basil
    Parsely
    cucumber
    Spinach
    Snap peas

    I also put in some Rosemary and Lavender,

    So far the only thing that is looking awesome are the tomatoes and peppers. The oregano and parsley are doing well along with the lavender and rosemary At this point everything else is questionable....
  • 1HappyTurtleRunner
    1HappyTurtleRunner Posts: 125 Member
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    I have a vegetable garden with : 5 types of tomatoes, sweet potatoes, white and red onions, squash, pole beans, 4 types of peppers, red cabbage, watermelons, cantaloupe and eggplants.

    I also have a little berry garden with strawberries, blackberries and raspberries.
  • marvybells
    marvybells Posts: 1,984 Member
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    oops! double post, see below...
  • marvybells
    marvybells Posts: 1,984 Member
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    yes, i built my first ever veggie garden on the side of the house last year. the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant did quite well. I also grew sweet butter lettuce, kale, bok choy & rainbow swiss chard but the bugs got to them (all but the chard. i guess they did not care for it) for some reason my cucumbers and zucchini did not survive. planted corn and it grew well but i never read up on when to harvest and unfortunately it got mealy by the time i picked it.

    This year i would like to stick with the easy ones which for me were tomatoes, peppers & eggplant. also want to try some root veggies this time....and I might try cucumbers again because i love them. :)

    edit: oh i forgot about my strawberry plants. those were a bust. :( I saw bees polinating them daily so i'm not sure what went wrong. I only got one substantial sized berry to grow and it rotted before i picked it. i think i am going to try them again.
  • mooglysmom
    mooglysmom Posts: 319 Member
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    Yup! Just finally got it in! Its small, but I can't wait for all those great veggies to come in~
  • Himejii
    Himejii Posts: 27
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    I used to, but the produce went to waste, the garden was taken over by weeds, and it became more of a pain than a pleasure.

    Now I'm happy to support local farmers by buying what I can from the farmer's market, and I've turned my patch over to perennials (bulbs mostly).

    I do have some volunteer beans coming up, on account of how terrible I was at harvesting last year, and how many of them fell in the soil and then survived being tilled this spring, and merrily sprouted. I'm going to experiment to see how well they do with literally zero input. No weeding, no watering. I might put down a trellis for them to grow up, since that requires minimal effort on my part.

    In the past I've grown carrots (some so big you couldn't get your hand around... first year, when I was still gung-ho), Roma tomatoes, beans & peas. I tried watermelon one year (I live in a cold zone) and ended up with exactly one fruit, about 3.5" across, all white on the inside but surprisingly tasty despite the colour. Tried squash last year, but nothing got past the flower stage. I've done cukes (came out bitter). Grew corn one year, it grew all right but wasn't very good. Peppers that produced plenty of flowers but no fruit.

    So my lesson in vegetable gardening is that I don't have the commitment to keep on it for a full summer, and the produce I can buy are much tastier than what ends up growing in my garden.
  • mollywhippet
    mollywhippet Posts: 1,890 Member
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    I'm trying to have a garden this year, but don't have a clue what I'm doing. I did find out though, that it is a lot of work. I planted lots of cherry tomatoes, three kinds of peppers for salsa, sweet corn, zucchini, cucumbers and one little basil plant. It all seems to be growing, but my neighbors garden is much, much taller than mind already, so I must have planted mine later. I was scared the frost would get them, so I waited a long time to plant it. The grandkids are enjoying watching the tiny tomatoes grow.
  • kats1957
    kats1957 Posts: 21 Member
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    My garden is in! I love to grill vegetables in the summer. Another one of our favorite dishes is a spaghetti squash with fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, and cheese bake.

    I also put in a small herb garden. I've never grown herbs before, but found a nifty idea on Pinterest using concrete blocks for the herbs. I've got the following in my herb garden:

    sage
    a couple different basils
    cilantro
    garlic
    mint
    rosemary
    lavender
    thyme
    fennel

    My vegetable garden has:

    Tomatoes--8-10 varieties (25 or so plants total)
    sweet peppers
    jalapeno peppers
    sweet banana peppers
    hungarian wax pepper
    eggplant
    zucchini
    yellow summer squash
    spaghetti squash
    cucumbers
    sugar babies watermelon

    I can't wait to start getting some fresh produce!
  • bravosixone
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    I'm trying to have a garden this year, but don't have a clue what I'm doing. I did find out though, that it is a lot of work. I planted lots of cherry tomatoes, three kinds of peppers for salsa, sweet corn, zucchini, cucumbers and one little basil plant. It all seems to be growing, but my neighbors garden is much, much taller than mind already, so I must have planted mine later. I was scared the frost would get them, so I waited a long time to plant it. The grandkids are enjoying watching the tiny tomatoes grow.


    I learned everything I know from my grandfather, growing a good garden is a lost art! I'm glad to see it's becoming "hip" to do for yourself with my generation, when I first started my garden, no body I knew had one, now, I can help out giving advise to friends that have the commitment to see it thru. I wouldn't worry about the size of your plants, I planted weeks after my grandpa last year, and out grew him by late July lol.
  • bravosixone
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    yes, i built my first ever veggie garden on the side of the house last year. the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant did quite well. I also grew sweet butter lettuce, kale, bok choy & rainbow swiss chard but the bugs got to them (all but the chard. i guess they did not care for it) for some reason my cucumbers and zucchini did not survive. planted corn and it grew well but i never read up on when to harvest and unfortunately it got mealy by the time i picked it.

    I've had problems with pests getting into my greens before, I lost a whole crop of brussle sprouts to afids (sp?) before I knew what was happening. Next year if you decide to grow more greens, after you water them, sprinkle them with wood ash, it's an old trick I leaned, works great for me, I do the same for my roses too. So far as the corn goes, seperate a small part of the husk and silk, home grown corn won't always grow all the way up the cob, so if the kernel looks large and ripe, press your thumb nail into it, if it squirts corn juice at you, it's ripe and juicy and ready to eat. If it's gotten over ripe and a little tough, blanch the corn in boiling water, shave it off the cob, and freeze it freezer bags of vacuum sealed, when you want corn in the winter, just pop it in the pot with a tab of butter, better than creamed corn IMO, and better for you!