Best Gardening Advice you ever received

Your dad's theory is right. We grow our own asparagus in a 12' x 12' separate garden and we grow raspberries. The birds end up with more of the blueberries than we ever get. We know the varieties of tomatoes that we prefer so those are the ones we enjoy growing from seed. We grow our own peppers since the pesticides they use on commercial peppers is supposedly very intense and I've noticed the difference in crunch in home grown compared to store bought.

We no longer grow our own onions or garlic - too many disappointments with those. I do have a bed of shallots since we love them for cooking.

Broccoli looks great growing in with the dahlias and taste so much better than store bought!

One of the best things about growing your own lettuce, asparagus, broccoli, etc. is that you pick it and eat it a few minutes later - no delays of a few days in shipping. Nothing can compare to it.

i read a story in a gardening magazine . that pic reminded me of it .
this isnt word for word
it went something like :
my husband and i rented an old farm house from a lady . when we signed the lease she told us that there was an asparagus patch on the side of the house . we were so exited to see them popping up . when they were tall enough we went out and cut them , brought them in slathered them in butter and cooked them . we immediately got this disgusted look on our faces and spit them out . later the land lady came and said she wanted to get some asparagus . i walked with her and told her how bitter the asparagus was . as we passed the patch she said "honey ,you ate the peonies "

Funny!

When we were in the process of moving here I dug up every asparagus plant (big root systems) and placed each one in a separate plastic bag. We had them stored at the side of the house until their bed was prepared. One day my daughter was here for lunch and I asked her if she'd like asparagus so we went outside to pick some. She was amazed, never having seen them growing anywhere, and said: I didn't know asparagus grew in plastic bags.

Cute story, pirl! And what a nice (veggie?) bed you have there. I wish the raised beds I built last year looked even half as good.

pirl, interesting bed. is the hay serving as paths? also, what is the pen to the left of the veggie bed?

love peonies story, love asparagus in plastic story.

Thanks, Kayly! It's easy to keep that bed looking good until the asparagus season is over and then it looks like a mini forest.

Nery - actually it's Southern Pine Needles in the paths and it works well with the weed fabric underneath. To the left is the vegetable garden. Here's the view of the vegetable garden from the front and you can see the asparagus going to fronds at the side of the shed. Eventually they end up about 4 to 5' tall.

Pirl- Love the veggie garden, and your scarecrow lady is divine!

But where did her lovely face go? Or was that photo taken before she acquired a head?

Pirl, tell us about your tomatoes. First, do you like the red plastic mulch? Second, can you describe your support system a little? I've never seen anyone use the horizontal grid like it looks like you have, but it makes sense.

Thanks, mattsmom!

Zuzu, the head was installed last year and remained on without cracking through the snow we had during the winter. For the benefit of those who missed her sleek Mohawk snow cut on January 19th, here it is:

I see I selected the wrong photo. The one posted shows her in summer with her umbrella hat as well as her very hot teddy under her clothes! She is very feminine!

Cindy - I really doubt the red plastic mulch is all that it's cracked up to be. We'll use what remains on the roll but when it's done I'm sure we'll revert to the greenhouse weed fabric that we really love using.

I'll find some photos of the copper work that Jack did to create the "tomato room" portion of the vegetable garden. We did it to keep the crows out of it. They'd drop in each day to just poke at the best of the tomatoes - the ones we had planned to eat! The nerve of them! So, the copper is all covered with black bird mesh and it works.

I'll also find a photo of the copper, white mesh covered tables, which make the tomato picking very easy.

Here's a photo that shows the tomato room, including (at the right) the mesh covered copper framed "door".

Here you can see most of the room as well as the tables and the white mesh covering them.

Here's a close up of the white mesh so you can see how the tomatoes grow through, flower and fruit on top of the table.

P, that is fantastic!

So glad you like it. We do, too.

Thank you!

you know, farmers will always keep their veggie gardens utilitarian but farmer wannabes and surburbanites like me see nothing wrong w/ prettying up their veggie gardens. A nearby nursery has decorated the veggie area with the prettiest ironware you've every seen as a way to grow beans, cukes, etc. In one bed they installed what was an old gate (a rose trellis would work too) and it was awesome. I have made a mental note of it and have my eyes peeled for an old gate on freecycle or craigslist, for when I redo my veggie bed(s).

This one doesn't quite illustrate the wrought ironware I saw, but see how the designed the lower tier? they had marygolds planted as bug deterrent for veggies in higher tier.

oh goodie, you can see the espaliers meant to be used for vining veggies. with some difficulty, the gate I was talking about can be seen also.

Vossner, that's very cool! Thanks for sharing a photo. :)

That is AWESOME vossner! It is nice to be able to 'play' with our veggie/herb gardens, isn't it? Funny thing but dahlias just happened to start recently showing up in mine ^_^

I know we're digressing from the original topic of best gardening advice (which is a great topic), but I'm sure others could benefit from Pirl's advice. Pirl, I love how organized and neat your garden is. I'm looking at your crow room as a nice neat way to protect my blueberries. How do you keep the u shaped copper tubing structures from leaning side to side?

The copper tubing was 8' long and Jack pounded them into the ground 2' so that's why they don't move.

Thanks for the compliment but I take photos when it looks good, not when it needs work!

Our former neighbors always worried that small birds would get caught in the mesh and we have made several rescues so that is a consideration for your blueberries.

Here's the cucumber trellis and it, too, is pounded into the ground. We also have one for the Sugar Snap Peas and it's reinforced at both ends with rebar behind the copper.