Excellent Sherrie!! Gotta like that!!
Any vegetable gardeners out there?
Cool - congrats, Sherrie.
That's awesome, Sherrie! You have to be proud and satisfied that your efforts paid off so nicely! Congrats!
Pirl - You hit the nail on the head! Since we aren't very close to anything - and with the cost of gas being what it is....having a produce section in our back yard does come in very handy!
While my DH was rototilling the garden this morning, one half of the rotors just fell off! LOL It seems a nut had come off of the pin that holds the two sides together. He fixed it temporarily and then finished almost all of it before it fell off again. We went to the hardware store and now we're back in business for tomorrow. I still have radishes, potatoes, greens, carrots & green beans to plant.
Nice-looking asparagus, Laurel. I don't see the weeds that are obscuring mine. I still have some out there and I meant to bring them in......there's still tomorrow!! LOL
Bed?? at 6PM? Take some of the $$ and go out to dinner!!
Garden is in - it looks like a field of hay just cut from all the seedweed hay. I'll grab some pics in the AM.
Impressive that you have it all in, Bill. What did you plant???
The garden is a joint ventor with my in-laws. Approching 80 and active. I grow all from seed and they do all the weeding which let's me tend to the yard. Lets see 32 T-plants - big mama roma's and hybrid brandy boys - 8 eggplant - 3 chile reneo(sp), 3 anihime (sp) - 3 basil - 100 leeks, swiss chard - pumpkin - summer squash - blue hubard - buttercup squash - cukes - dill - carrots - parsnip - 8 green bell peppers.
Also filled all the flower boxes with petunias grown from seed. About 10 boxes.
Bill - that is impressive indeed! Post some photos when things get roaring, please.
Wow Wha. That is so impressive! I'm gathering you do all the planning and planting. We can't grow anything with deep roots, so no carrots or parsnips. Leeks like longer, cooler weather than we have here. Our clay is too heavy for long root veggies. And you do this all from seed? Aren't you lucky to not only have such active, healthy IL's, but folks that "share the dream"?
Sherrie...you are definitely on a roll. You garden girrl! Doesn't it feel like you're getting away with something? Well...not. It takes lots of hard work and dedication to grow a good garden.
Laurel
Great job both Sherrie and Bill! You'll have the veggies to enjoy all summer.
We too planted our garden today and im beat and sunburned.
Cukes:
Marketmore
Wisconsin SMR58
Straight Eights
Armenian
Slice Master
Tomato:
Golden Pear
Roma
Sweet 100
Beefsteak
Corn:
Fantastic
Bi-Licious
Peaches and Cream
Okra
Kohlrabi
Radish
Carrots 'Nante half long
Swiss Chard 'Bright lights'
Zuccini
Summer Squash 'Little Neck'
Squash 'Butternut'
Squash 'Blue Hubbard'
Lettuece 'Salad Mix'
Broccoli 'Packman'
Cauliflower ' Snowball'
Brussels Sprouts
Cantalope 'Honey Rock'
Wax Beans 'Goldendrop Wax'
Green Beans 'Blue Lake Bush'
Green Beans 'Long Tendergreens'
Watermelon:
Crimson Sweet
Sugar Baby
Oh, and a few pumpkins & gourds.
I'm done....
Goodnight!!
This message was edited May 26, 2008 11:25 AM
Great, now I'm hungry at 11:18 pm, lol.
I love Brussells Sprouts, Pixie, and would just die to have some fresh ones. They are wonderful if you shred them into 1/4" ribbons and saute them with a very little bit of butter (doesn't take much at all, the liquid they give off cooks them as well) for about 5-7 minutes. Then you squeeze a fresh lime over them and add salt and pepper to taste. OMG, I'm salivating just thinking about how good that would be with fresh sprouts!!!! My husband and I both love that side dish, and neither of us are huge veggie eaters, for the most part. Trust me, Brussells Sprouts haters, it's delicious.
As odd as it seems they're also good tossed with butter and glazed with a bit of maple syrup and walnuts.
Here is a shot from the back deck of the garden. Can you see the tiny plants. Forgot there are ariticokes in there too. Close up's when there is something to see.
Very nice and neat, Bill. Lovely place you have, in fact!
thx Donniebrook
Great looking gardens, Bill. I guess you don't have any deer problems.
Love your big curves! Too many people have too many little curves and that makes mowing difficult. The big ones are the nicest (to my eyes) to view.
Deer tend to stay on the other side of the pond back there - not sure why, see them all the time. It is the rabbits i need to watch.
Your right about the curves. Had some little ones that I got rid off for that very reason.
Big curves are nice - I always liked them. In gardens too!^_^
Victor!!!
I should have expected it.
Hee hee.
pixie who is going to eat all those veggies? Your garden must be HUGE.
Victor I swear that they set you up with straight lines just to see the reply.
Yes, I admit it - I dmail people and go over the setup lines with them!
wha....Who gives what set up lines first?
pirl mentioned big curves above and Victor was confused - i think.
Victor can detect good curves without glasses, I'm sure.
ESP!
Woah - this is post oil again (finally) - I started this thread a week ago then went out of town - you guys have been busy! I gotta read through all of this and join the conversation! Right now my two year old is having a fit so I'll catch up during nap time!
victor - in response to your wanting to hear more about post oil living I am afraid I will be a bit of a disappointment. My intent is to learn to live without oil - but - I am at the beginning of my travels - I am keeping a journal on line which presently tracks the saga of learning how to garden. We do heat the house with a wood stove - that keeps my husband very busy!
I hope to move into sewing, ceramics which I have some experience - but that is with an eliectric wheel and kiln, I have a friend with sheep who is going to teach me how to spin wool so I can knit with my own wool - seems like a pipe dream at this point!
I've got a lot of reading to do wtill to catch up - you guys are wuite a cool team of gardeners - look forward to hearing more!
pirl - oh mi goodness your soil looks good enough to eat all by itself! I've got some work to do on mine I can see!
It's actually more like the Devil's Food cake mix under the pines. Even Martha Stewart would be jealous of that soil but thanks for the compliment on the vegetable garden.
MaypopLaurel - I've got a bunch of pics on line at http://post-oil-learning.blogspot.com/
I've been keeping ablog to help me remember what I learned this first year and what NOT to do. Its also good for a few laughts - I find that the learning process causes me to make a silly fool out of myself at times ...
i haven't taken any pics in the last few days and things have really changed alot as we got a lightening storm over the weekend...you have to scroll down a lot to see anything - I'll have to get some better ones for you -
Hi POL. I don't think any of what you wrote is a pipe dream. It is, as you said, a journey. Sounds like you're on your way. Our DD throws and only uses a kick wheel here at home. It does take up space though. She also drop spins and would like to raise goats and sheep some day. We both sew and hand quilt. We supplement our heat with a Pilgrim stove up in N. GA and cook on it when the power is out (sometimes for days). It's a blast! Enough wood goes down each year, so we don't have to cut. DH sections it and I get to split. You know the old joke about the wife getting a toaster for Mother's Day? Well I got a new maul to split wood as the old one had "mushroomed". Maybe next year I can get a new sledge. Told him I wanted a lawn boy and he gave me a Lawn Boy. Be careful what you wish for. lol
Laurel
Sorry, it was a cross post. I'll check it out for sure POL.
MaypopL COOL! Drop spin! I can't stand it!
I dream of chickens in the yard and a milk goat - Chickens, we raised as a kid for a 4-H project...funny story there but too long to tell and not that funny...I think it is legal in my suburb so I might be able to do it... neighbors will swoon - but it will be good for them...
I know absolutely nothing about goats - like - can they live alone or do they need to have a friend? are all goats milk goats? I dunno - fun fun fun learning though....probably even more fun than learning how to use the internet adn message boards!
I dream of chickens in the yard too. Especially those exotic feathered ones from Belgium and Germany that lay every day, eat all the bad bugs in the garden and sit in your lap when you're done with the day's picking. As soon as I stop rescuing over-sized, under-trained country hounds...well it could become a reality.
Goats are social, so you need a few. I don't really know about them. She is set, at this time, on dwarf Nubians for milk and meat. She is not averse to slaughter (freaks me out) and spent her Winter school break brain tanning a deer hide that a poacher left on our property (with the deer skull and brains). The only issue is when I discovered she had used my blender to "stir" the brains for tanning. We have the hide over our fireplace. She was disappointed that she could not create a "wardrobe" from the hide after all that work. Shrinkage was an issue. Please don't ask me to explain my kids, but the trees do not fall far from the nuts. That's all I can say about that!
Laurel
Laurel,
Dwarf Nubians - hmm - someone else in the poultry livestock forum mentioned those...
Someday...garden first...knitting and sewing this winter...I am going to have to get someone to grant me a certificate that I am actually crazy so my poor husband can explain why the chickens and goats are in his suburban manicured lawn....he can tell them it is therapy for my nerves!
He might enjoy the slaughter part - he used to deer hunts hasn't shots anything for years...there is a selling point in there somewhere...