A tasty bandwagon
Let's all give KIM a round of applause for her first green sprout in her first garden. Not a small feat if you know what she went through to prepare her soil. Way to go Kim!
She's right, there are a lot of people doing gardens this year. There's always been a huge number of older people that do gardens because they grew up with them. The younger generations seem to not be interested. If they do anything they grow a few tomato plants and maybe some peppers. In the past few years, Ell and I (and our co-op partners) have been a decided minority amongst our age group when it comes to having a garden. But this year I keep hearing person after person say they are growing some of their own food. That makes me so happy. Gardening is such a rewarding thing to do, and so many people are missing out.
Here's my growing list for 2007 (and some interesting details)
-Garlic (been growing since last October)
-Asparagus (stays in the garden for 20-30 years)
-early spring lettuce including Spicy Mesculin, regular Mesculin, Tatsoi Spoon Mustard, Craquante Avignate
-two or three varieties of Onions (My co-op partner replants two or three big onions each year to go to seed so we have an on-going supply of onion seeds. We do two main varieties every other year, one red and one yellow.)
-three kinds of paste tomatoes (We also had a bunch of seeds from fallen fruit go to seed and I transplanted the 18 strongest plants into a bed. They may be a cross-pollinated variety, so it'll be fun to see what kind of tomatoes we get.)
-Cocozelle zucchini and an old strain of flat yellow zucchini (that predates Columbus in America, I grew it last year too)
-Buttercup and Delicata fall squash
-Green Beans
-A sunflower mix that has 10-20 blooms per plant
-four or five kinds of hot peppers including Hungarian Hot Wax (used for Laura's famous mustard,) Peruvian Purples, Jalapenos, and a couple others
-two sweet pepper types
-two kinds of carrots Oxhearts and Orange Core Chateny (I'll start a winter variety at the beginning of July)
-Golden beets
-Fox Cherry tomatoes
-Armenium Cucumbers (an 18-24" variety that may be the best tasting cucumber ever, but hard to grow)
-Scotland Leeks (taste gets better when covered in snow for a while)
-two kinds of cantaloupes
-African Giant Marigolds (these are those 4-5' tall plants that I've been saving seed from for years now)
We also had a bunch of old seed packets with just a few seeds in each one that we decided to just grow out and see what happens. These included habenero, chili, and Bolivian Rainbow peppers, Muskmelon, two kinds of bush beans, Sugar Snap Peas, gold ball turnips, and some squash. This is always a fun experiment to see what comes up.
I spend about 3 hours a night out in the garden, and most of Saturday. I kind of hate it when I get to the point where it's doing good b/c then I feel lost. But that extra time does allow for some plain ol' sitting and pipe smoking. That's pretty fun too. Stop over some time, I'll show you around.
She's right, there are a lot of people doing gardens this year. There's always been a huge number of older people that do gardens because they grew up with them. The younger generations seem to not be interested. If they do anything they grow a few tomato plants and maybe some peppers. In the past few years, Ell and I (and our co-op partners) have been a decided minority amongst our age group when it comes to having a garden. But this year I keep hearing person after person say they are growing some of their own food. That makes me so happy. Gardening is such a rewarding thing to do, and so many people are missing out.
Here's my growing list for 2007 (and some interesting details)
-Garlic (been growing since last October)
-Asparagus (stays in the garden for 20-30 years)
-early spring lettuce including Spicy Mesculin, regular Mesculin, Tatsoi Spoon Mustard, Craquante Avignate
-two or three varieties of Onions (My co-op partner replants two or three big onions each year to go to seed so we have an on-going supply of onion seeds. We do two main varieties every other year, one red and one yellow.)
-three kinds of paste tomatoes (We also had a bunch of seeds from fallen fruit go to seed and I transplanted the 18 strongest plants into a bed. They may be a cross-pollinated variety, so it'll be fun to see what kind of tomatoes we get.)
-Cocozelle zucchini and an old strain of flat yellow zucchini (that predates Columbus in America, I grew it last year too)
-Buttercup and Delicata fall squash
-Green Beans
-A sunflower mix that has 10-20 blooms per plant
-four or five kinds of hot peppers including Hungarian Hot Wax (used for Laura's famous mustard,) Peruvian Purples, Jalapenos, and a couple others
-two sweet pepper types
-two kinds of carrots Oxhearts and Orange Core Chateny (I'll start a winter variety at the beginning of July)
-Golden beets
-Fox Cherry tomatoes
-Armenium Cucumbers (an 18-24" variety that may be the best tasting cucumber ever, but hard to grow)
-Scotland Leeks (taste gets better when covered in snow for a while)
-two kinds of cantaloupes
-African Giant Marigolds (these are those 4-5' tall plants that I've been saving seed from for years now)
We also had a bunch of old seed packets with just a few seeds in each one that we decided to just grow out and see what happens. These included habenero, chili, and Bolivian Rainbow peppers, Muskmelon, two kinds of bush beans, Sugar Snap Peas, gold ball turnips, and some squash. This is always a fun experiment to see what comes up.
I spend about 3 hours a night out in the garden, and most of Saturday. I kind of hate it when I get to the point where it's doing good b/c then I feel lost. But that extra time does allow for some plain ol' sitting and pipe smoking. That's pretty fun too. Stop over some time, I'll show you around.
posted by Sam at 9:39 AM
6 Comments:
ummm I am FLOORED at the volume of your garden and the attention you give it! that is so very commendable, Sam.
I just read a MOPS book (but really shouldn't be labled as such..guys should/could read it too) that is called The Orchard. It's a modern day parable (I got it super cheap at Heaven on Earth's outlet in Boardman..it is closing (just the outlet)).
The characters (I) and (The Orchard Keeper), aka Jesus. It goes through gardening/pruning/etc. processes..in terms that you relate to with your Christian walk. Really Really Really Good. It's super short, too! Anyways, if you see it somewhere, get it..You'd probably really like it!
I would love to see your garden sometime. I've seen the pictures, but I'm sure they don't do it justice. That is a cubic buttload of produce!
Cubic buttload. Now that's a great description!!!
wow i'm inspired!
great description.
I thought growing kids was time consuming...
If we ever get rid of the chicos and maybe plant a bit of grass and a flower or two, Adam wants to plant a garden. He just told me that the other night.
We'd definitely be starting in the "few tomatoes and maybe some peppers" crowd. And peas and corn - that's what he said he wants anyway. I'm not sure if we could get corn to grow...I think it takes a long growing season and lots of heat and water...
I'll show you around the garden! I love to see that big list of stuff. I forget because I don't plant it myself. Crazy! It will be exciting to do all the fun canning on this food we will have. This week it will be hard to beat the sun because of it being the longest days of the year!
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