In light of all the pesticide problems and other things that there's a push to revive the concept of the Victory garden. I think it's a pretty good idea!
http://www.revivevictorygarden.org/index.html
Stephanie
Revive the Victory Garden
I think that's a great idea, Stephanie! Growing edibles is something I want to do more of, although being in the Hill Country it's quite a challenge to do that.
I enjoyed that link. This spring, I am inspired to plant more vegies. For me keeping them watered is a problem. I am trying vegetables in containers set in beds where I can put water in the bed and the pots will absorb it from the bottom. Anyway, the link you provided gave me a link to container plants and types of plants that will do better in pots. Thanks much for sharing that information! pod
Went a little crazy and ordered seed from Wilhite Seeds (about 100 miles or less from here) and Johnny's Seeds. Got seed potatoes from the local Ace Hardware and they are sliced and drying. Still researching tomatoes. Too late to start seed so it will be necessary to purchase started plants. Gets to 90 early in the season and they go dormant.
Highly recommend the two above. The onion sets from Wilhite are pretty as a picture. Cold and dreary again but have worked the garden soil while it was warm and can hardly wait to plant.
Thank you for the link, Steph. You can't imagine how far it took me to other links. The Green Kitchen with Alice Waters is great. My mother and grandmother didn't grow their veggies but when I was growing up the Dallas Produce Market was truly filled with the farmers from all around the area. We went there several times a week to shop for fresh vegetables. Watched them toil all summer "putting up" the next winter's foods. Oh, for a pickled peach like my grandmother made. If you have never eaten corn cut directly from the cob and immediately cooked, well, darlin', you haven't lived yet.
Pod, how does that work with putting the pots into the beds? Wouldn't you have to completely flood the bed to the point of sogginess in order to get enough water into those pots?
Well, this is a first time for me but I think in theory when the bed is shallow (no deeper than two inches) and packed with pots only so much water will be absorbed by the pots so it shouldn't leave them soggy. Bottom watering and fertilizing will also make the roots reach down. It was recommended to use a cheap WM sandy soil that will be well draining also.
The idea was Twiggybuds and it made sense to me as that is what the large garden centers do to water all their plants out on the hot asphalt parking lots. If you are interested, these are some of the links. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5329944 http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/926516/
I have been picking up seed for plants suitable for containers and hope to level the ground where I will put the beds this weekend.
I hope more will grow their own. I'm trying to do more. But realizing the more my neighbors do, we can combine efforts and trade. I was so sad to hear our local friend that has bee hives has been affected with a moth that has all but destroyed his hives. So unless I can find another beekeeper, will still be purchasing.
We've added a dairy cow, turkeys, more chickens. If growing winter squash goes well this year we'll purchase some piglets to finish in the fall. Our goal is to go an entire year with only purchasing coffee. It could take a few years to get to that point, maybe by then I can kick my coffee habit and drink homegrown herbal tea.lol
Great goal you have set. We did that growing up. Large family on a dairy farm. We had our own milk, beef, pork, chicken, eggs, fruit orchard and two large gardens. Lots of work but lots of good food and work ethic learned. My Mom sold eggs to the hatchery for the staples we couldn't provide ~ yes, coffee was one of them. LOL Best wishes for the year ahead Cocoa!
LOL The families were definitely large for a reason. I was in the middle of the herd and by that point, my Dad was using milking machines.
My favoritetist part of the farm was time spent of tractors and I still love it. DH has only been on ours once in the past 9 years.
I plant vegetables in my flower beds. A few tomatoes here and there among the marigolds and both help each other. A couple of vines of cucumbers here and some more there - good ground cover and helps to keep the weeds down and the beds moist. Onions and chives - by all means. Potatoes - not worth the effort w/just the 2 of us and we're not big potato eaters. Now, if they had pasta bushes or trees, etc., that would work...... Green beans - bush type: good filler in flower beds along w/basil and such. No root veggies other than the onions, shallots, garlic and chives. I hate even the smell of peppers and eggplant altho they are pretty growing but they are not getting any space in MY beds. Corn and greens, for the most part, just don't make enough to warrant space and I have a small farmers' market not far from me. Cantaloupe makes a good ground cover. I'm not a glutton for punishment so I don't get out and plant lettuce mainly because Jim likes Iceberg lettuce and nothing but and I do, too. Okra is big and takes up a lot of space but blackeyed peas and the like can go on a piece of chicken wire in the back of the bed along the wooden fence and stay out of the way and green up that horrid fence and cover the stems of some of the climbing roses and leggy shrubs. A long time ago I learned from an
Aggie that to cover every inch of beds shaded out the weeds. It has worked for me and makes your beds look so lush when in reality it really isn't.
Ann
Oh, I understand it now, Pod! I thought you were talking about just burying the pots into the soil. Using plastic like it describes makes more sense. I've got a friend who gets mulch free from the town/suburb she lives in and she does something different. On one part of her yard she has most of her one-gallon or larger potted plants sitting on the ground but with quite a few inches of mulch surrounding the pots. She waters them from above (drip system), but says they stay moist longer that way and it helps insulates them some in winter, so that she doesn't even cover them if expecting a pretty mild freeze. Of course, she doesn't have much in the way of tender tropicals. I think anything really tender she puts into the garage if it gets too cold.
thanks for that wonderful link Stephanie. Like LouC, I spent quite a while in there. I put it into my favorites.
Ann, do you consider your garden a cottage garden? That's how I've done my veggies in the past, interplanted among the flowers. I love the look and do believe it confuses the bugs. I'm a bit nervous this year having all the veggies in a "veggie bed" but will do my best to add flowers as well. Got to keep the pollinators happy and the nasties confused ;0)
We must all be thinking along the same lines. I'm mixing some fruit and veg plants among my back garden plants this year. I now have 3 fig trees since you can't buy figs because their don't hold up well once picked and I love them. I'm adding tomatoes and speckled butterbeans too. Ann, I'm doing the beans the way you mentioned. They're going on chicken wire hooked to the back fence. There are LA iris, daylilies and spider lilies in front of the bed in that area. I'll add a few green onions and some garlic and maybe some green bush beans. I wish I had room for some field corn! I'm mainly interested in growing stuff that can't be purchased readily. Everything is better when picked fresh or course, but some things when purchased don't even resemble the taste of fresh, like canned peaches or corn, yuck. I'm not putting in a peach tree, even though I love them, because they are just so much trouble to spray and maintain. I already learned that lesson. It's easier to drive to the orchards when they're in season and buy a couple of bushels. I hadn't thought of summer squash, but I may try to find a spot for those too. They're easy to grow.
I love hearing what everyone else is working on in getting their spring gardens ready. It gets me motivated!
Crow
What I have in the way of a garden is the whole perimeter of the back yard is bordered by the inevitable cedar fence. Then come the trees and bushes that were put in in '78 or so and then some other stuff that the former owners put in so that there is a real mishmosh of roses, loquot trees, crepe myrtles, oleanders, brugs (if they survive as they were planted in the ground), althea, fern, some kinds of broms - you get the idea. There is still a lot of space. That's why the birds were able to drop a seed of Conf. Rose. I brought my lemon, bird of paradise, some lilies, some more brugs and some plumerias and a bird bath. Still there is a lot of room and it is all what I would call sunny to mostly sunny. The front is more formal but I'm messing w/that because I don't do formal. So, I don't think I have a cottage garden - just still a mishmosh of stuff and room for a lot more.
Ann
Yours sounds like mine. I don't know what to call it, but it comes closer to cottage style than anything else. I have taken nearly everything out of the garden that was here when we moved in. Two huge ash trees that were rotting from the inside of the trunks and I was worried would crash through the roof in a storm, then all the overgrown and raggedy ligustrum hedges along the house as foundation plantings and another row of them as a hedge between my house and next door. I replaced the foundation plantings with oleanders and the hedge with Knockout roses. the front beds were totally redone too. I put loripetalum and roses at the back of the beds, an espalliered Little Gem Magnolia trained on a brick wall with a small fountain in front, then salvias, and daylilies as edging at the front of the beds. I've filled in with petunias and allysum during the cool weather until the salvias can spread some. I'm hoping come spring that it looks as good as I'm expecting it to. I have a tendency to overplant and when things get growing, they're too crowded. Hopefully I've got it about right this time.
Your brug will likely be fine. I've had mine in ground for two years now and it's only had minor freeze damage at the tip ends. I just whack it back in early spring and it comes right back. In fact, the silly thing is putting on a load of buds right now. It just finished a flush of blooms a few weeks ago and is setting a ton more. They're probably all get zapped by a freeze, but it's sure trying to bloom.
In San Antonio, fig trees are almost a nuisance in the older neighborhoods. We had fig trees all the time. However, you don't want your dogs eating too many figs. The output isn't pretty! LOL
Crow, I would love to get rid of every wax leaf ligustrum I see at these older houses along w/the pittosporum - both green and varigated - and all those bushes that people have pruned for years but just the tops and sides of and the bushes get all leggy and , in my opinion, ugly. I have pittosporum (green) under my bedroom window in front and in front of that I have loripetalum which I think is beautiful all in bloom but is a bit sparse because I had my gardener cut it way back and it's kinda leggy. On either side of that window is a ligustrum but I'll have Ric cut it back thoroughly every time he comes and Jim won't know the difference. At the bottom of all this is lots of ginger and even more wood fern which is impossible to get rid of. To the right of all this is a big loquot full of fruit a couple or roses, some un-IDd lilies - some are Agapanthus and some aren't but could be amarylis (Pls excuse the atrocious spelling) but that's just a couple of spots and I need to get stuff in there that's at least annual. Also, they must have really been in love w/sagos cause we have them thruout the beds.One the other side of the front walk is big and has flowered and there are a multitude of the red seeds that the birds seem to have been pecking on. That overgrown thing has no fronds at the bottom so it's naked from the soil up to the 2 rows of fronds it does have. That's getting pulled and destroyed when Ric has the chance and my little pink roses (Tiffany) are going in there after I fill in the hole w/good soil and compost to get it nice and high. We have a total of 5 loquots that produce prodigiously and it looks like a bumper crop again this year. Call it a cottage garden if you must but I can truly find nothing to describe it except "overgrown but pruned slightly and not fertilized" garden. They just started throwing everything but the kitchen sink in there.
Ann
http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233077896&sr=1-1
This is the book I'm reading now, and I had victory garden in mind when I bought it. It's written by the man who founded Territorial Seeds and I'm finding it quite interesting for very serious veggie gardening. Since I plan to get a very small farm quite soon (something to retire to and do little other than gardening) I figure the more I know, the better off I'll be. This book definitely changes what I was going to do this coming fall. I'm planting the spring veggie/victory garden as planned, but then I'm amending rather than planting. Work to do, and looking forward to it!
Ann, "a mishmosh of stuff" sounds like THE definition of a cottage garden! Yours sounds lovely.
Ann, is this a house you recently moved into? I call what you and I both had "builder's generic" landscaping. I still have one of the pittosporum by the garage. In addition to the ferns you mentioned, I also had tons of variegated ginger, cast iron plants and elephant ears.
Brigid, that book looks like one I need! How great that you plan to retire and farm. Are you staying in the same area, or moving to a place with more land? My oldest friend grew up in Lumberton and her mom still lives there. We've been friends since toddlers, which was an awful lot of years ago. I often think of moving to a smaller place once DH retires, but we've totally remodeled this place to suit me and I've done so much in the gardens, I'm not sure about going. I think I might like someplace with less upkeep and no worries when we travel, but no garden at all seems too drastic. We're in "wait and see" mode. DH would love for us to move back to Scotland, and I'd like it too, but I think the cost of living would be prohibitive and Medicare wouldn't cover us there.
Please keep us posted on what you're putting in the spring garden and the further work on the plot for later planting. I love hearing what others are doing and it seems there's a lot of interest in your Victory Garden idea.
Crow
Back when this house was originally built circa 1978, they always had foundation plantings - a term I abhor. It was usually pitts., ligustrum, a couple of evergreens - one on each side of the front door and a few underplantings like gingers and fern both of which I can do without. This was at one time a very affluent neighborhood but isn't so much any more because people just don't understand the value of big trees - pines and oaks well pruned and taken care of and quality of good workmanship. Our house was redone completely in 2001 and added on to. They did an excellent job of it w/crown moldings and some chair rails, all downstairs is big tile (20" , I think) installed diagonally and the game room on the first floor is an engineered wood - really easy upkeep - and up to date, beautiful paint, lots of electric coming to the house - more than just the usual - and great AC and heating. Unfortunately, this subdivision doesn't have natural gas. The younger folks today seem to think that they need a yard that has been scraped clean of any vegetation and top soil and a house that has 10-12' ceilings and lots of windows that they have to keep covered because there are no trees and the sun can be brutal. They will be lucky if their houses and yards are still there 30+ years from now as ours is. Finally we have the house I always dreamed of having. It's not "fine" but it looks like it's a "home" instead of just a house. The plantings outside can be improved and I intend to start quickly. Our youngest daughter has contracted to buy this house for exactly what we paid when we have to go to an assisted living home or whatever so right now we're sitting pretty!
Ann
crow, I have one son in Austin and another in Bryan (plus a son, daughter, and grandchildren in Beaumont) and I hope to find a piece of land close to Brenham. Not too very far for the ones here and right between my older boys. I have a friend up there, and she and her realtor friend are looking around for me. I'll post if anything real happens, of course! I think if it weren't for DG I wouldn't have had the cajones to get this started at all!
Cajones are a good thing to have in this life! At least if you're looking now, the real estate market is down so you can likely find a good deal. Of course, that works two ways, not so good if you have to sell a place you already own. Hope you find just what you're looking for and they're practically giving it away!. My problem is trying to decide what I want.
When I saw the title of this thread, I got excited - thought someone was wanting to revive the TV show. Loved it when Crockett was on, and even later with both the Boston garden and the southern garden - GA I think.
Learned so much from the show. My business partner has Crockett's book and even though the zones are different now, has been growing some great produce. The soil in his Bellaire yard was so compacted, that he gave up trying to dig and turn it, but steadily began buying the $ bags of soil at HEB whenever they were on sale.
His carrots, chives, etc. are awsome. And both of us look forward to fall/winter gardening - much less work and pests.
We (DW & I), should have more flowering plants, but seem to lose most of them - probably the neighborhood cats - but we feed them, too.
poco a poco - little by little - we are growing more each year.