"New to Beginner vegetable gardening"

Hi everybody, I`m sorta new to vegetable gardening. Let`s just say I`m probably a little out of practice. :)

I used to visit my Grandparent`s farm during the summer so I`m well aware it requires some weather watching, work and patience. I have had experience with growing perennials,annuals and roses but now that I have eaten some of my really good fresh veggies I`m going to have a garden every year I can from now on!

Compliments to all the nice threads and pictures!

Karen

congratulations, post a few pics of your garden, we'd love to see it!
-joe-

Karen,
What a nice message you posted!
I'm sure you have great memories of your grandparents' garden. Isn't it wonderful how we remember how the fresh vegetables tasted, how nice the straight green rows looked, and never remember how much grandpa sweated! But the toil is worth it, and we gardeners get a lot more out of our gardens than just produce (joy, strong muscles, bragging rights).
Enjoy your garden and let us know how it does.

I remember my Grandparent`s garden looked really huge. I was a little kid who just finished watching Mom plant her usual petunias in the driveway garden and remember thinking, "Wow, how did they plant all this stuff?" :)

Pictures,why not?



This message was edited Jul 15, 2009 4:19 PM

That is black millet in the front.

Rainy Day. Part of my garden has ornamental stuff like black millet, ornamental hot peppers, ornamental corn and gourds.

Here`s the fancy corn for fall decorations. I might as well give a tour. The first part of the garden has:

Ornamental corn
Black Pearl pepper
Japanese skinny eggplant
black millet
birdhouse gourds
miniature okra has red on leaves
black futsu squash
miniature cucumbers

Birdhouse gourd bloom:

black futsu squash. Note to self: Plant only 2 or 3 of these instead of 5 next time because these are hyyuuge plants and they make a lot of squash!

One of the gourds:

Next on down is:

1. Picture is Hokkaido black watermelon

2. a (maybe dumb) experiment: I planted some seeds I found inside a seedless melon(I got the melon at the grocery store and it was supposed to be seedless.) I found 7 seeds and I think about 4 sprouted and I have some weird melons going on right now. :)

3. Yubari cantaloupe

4. Moon and stars watermelon (I guess maybe better not save seeds or tell people they are open pollinated)

5. red asparagus beans

6. painted lady runner beans

7. Scarlet runner beans

8. purple pod peas mangetout (I think)

9. tomatoes black truffle in one section and early tomatoes in another



Edited: to clarify the seeds were from a supposedly seedless melon I bought at the grocery store. I said it was grown in Honduras I think iirc.

This message was edited Jul 15, 2009 5:29 PM

Crazy melons. I planted some seeds I found in a seedless watermelon from the grocery store. I wonder if the striped ones are seedless and the gray ones are normal? I`ll know come harvest time.

I wonder if the hokkaido black melon is seedless?

striped watermelon:

Yubari cantaloupe:

Red asparagus beans for stir fry. I don`t know how they taste just yet. I`ll fix them up in some stir fry pretty soon.

And finally a flower from the peas.

I must add as a conclusion gardening makes me happy because it makes me more thankful for my food, I`m happy when it rains,dirt smeared on my face and clothes doesn`t seem so bad, I love sunshine even more because it makes my garden grow, I have a little muscle when I flex my arm and thank God for giving me a chance to see a small version of eden here on Earth.

Karen


This message was edited Jul 15, 2009 5:08 PM

Wow, you have a very beautiful garden, It's always a joy to see what others put together. I am not nearly as organized in that I could tell you the types of all my vegetables and plants. I take the time to pick out new varieties most every year and have to look back at reciepts to figure it all out.

There really isn't anything better than getting out there ad smelling the dirt.. do you use the ornamentals to make displays or arrangements?

Hi there. Thanks for the compliment. My plant tags and repeated visits to check them for health status helps me remember each one like they are my pets. lol!

I thought about painting some of the gourds and trying to make a birdhouse. I sure plan on trying to make some crafts but we will see how that goes. :)

I stir fried the red asparagus beans (and they maintain the red color when cooked)with the sliced Japanese skinny eggplant and sprinkled some lemon pepper on it. It was pretty good even my daughter wanted to take some of mine off my plate! The beans are different than I`m used too. They aren`t as sweet and have a more nutty flavor to them. I need to figure out what dish these are used in and try something new.

My mini okra is about to bloom. I`ll come back here and post things as they happen. If I have a problem with something I`ll post a question. I have learned a lot in just a month reading here. This is nice. :)

Karen

The Gulf Coast is a challenging place to garden. And the temperatures this year are unreal. Congratulations on your successes and nice pictures.

I see you are growing millet. Now you just need a Dustbuster portable vacuum cleaner... You see, there is only one plant that Stink Bugs and Leaf-Footed Bugs like more than tomatoes, and that's millet. And they're a lot easier to "suck up" on millet. :)

My favorite beans for S.E. Texas are Dragon Tongue. Always had good results as long as the spider mites don't get them.

The stink bugs like my sunflowers. I got a swarm of those right before I harvested the sunflower seeds. I pointed my clippers at them and said," Curse you stinking bugs!" I then sprayed with some insecticide soap and it worked to run them off. Then the next day I could harvest the sunflower seeds in peace without getting bugs in my hair yeah! I haven`t seen any on the millet...yet. I hope my weekly natural pyrethrin and soap spray program works to keep those evil creatures run off !!! It seems to be working well so far. My tomatoes are trying to set fruit even in this heat.

Karen

Oh yes, I`ll make a note for the Dragon Tongue beans. If anyone has advice for southern gardeners for varieties that do well here and taste good then I want to know. Thanks!

For tomatoes, Jet Star and Gregori's Altai I love the flavor and they have been productive 3 years running. Jet Star is easily available. GA is not so easy to find.

Gardener, I sure got hungry reading your posts. A great garden.
I grew birdhouse gourds one year. Just came across whats left a couple weeks ago.
I dried mine on a shelf in the barn for a couple of months. Than cut a hole towards the bottom to get seeds and for a opening for the birds. Painted them all colors and painted flowers on some of them. than hung them in trees about 5' to 6'feet up. All except one had birds the next year. Maybe birds don't like bright orange. LOL
Have fun,

So far, knock on wood, here in Northeast Louisiana, I haven't been bugged by anything except aphids on my okra and a few snails on okra. Had just a spot or two of white flies but nothing major. They will start combining corn in a few days and then the stink bugs will come. Dread that.

Thanks for the tomato advice feldon.

Maybe,they will attack the corn and leave my millet alone. lol! The snails ate my first row of okra and I had to replant. It is just about to start blooming because I can see the buds forming.

That is funny about the orange birdhouse. I`ll be sure to avoid orange. :)