Eco-Friendly Family

Any gardeners? What are you growing?

Hi! Over the last few years, we have come to a point where we are about 50-70% eating from the garden in summer. I'm just starting my summer planting now (we live in the southern hemisphere, so it is almost time!) and wondering what your most useful foods are. I find I can grow things like beets like they're weeds, but actually, don't end up using them all. Same with turnips. Who can really eat 60 turnips in a week? They end up being sold at the local farmers market. Last year we had a super chili harvest - but it is almost time for more and I still have hundreds of dried chilis staring at me with silent accusation. My most useful in the past have been butternut, green beans, tomatoes, corn, peas, and chard. We have an orchard in the making with lemons, limes, peaches, plums, olives, and figs. What do you find the most useful?
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Re: Any gardeners? What are you growing?

  • Oh, we also grow strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and have a pond stocked with tilapia - space isn't an issue where I live, we already have six vegetable patches. Water is a huge problem, however. It is very dry, so things like watermelons tend to be unhappy. Our soil is awful - sand and rock - so I manure and mulch like mad.
    BabyFetus Ticker
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  • JJEM98JJEM98 member

    I have a tiny veggie garden so we don't grow a ton, mostly just things that I prefer the taste of homegrown, and I like to get my daughter involved in the process.  Here's what we have going this year. It's all things we eat, if we have overage I share with our neighbors.

    Spring: leaf lettuce ( 2 foot x 2 foot patch) & swiss chard (4 plants)

    Summer: swiss chard (4 plants) , basil (6 plants), 1 roma tomato plant, 1 cherry tomato plant, 1 large slicing tomato plant, 3 zucchini plants, 1 baby watermelon vine

    In the past we have also done pole and bush beans and carrots. Neither beans were great producers and the carrots were a weird shape and tough to clean and cook.

    Daughter Emily - 10/28/03, and baby on the way makes 4! Pregnancy Ticker
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  • I grow a lot of hot peppers.  I found that you can freeze them and pull them out as needed and they are almost the same as fresh.  (I froze rather than dried because I figured I could use it in stews and chili - but found out you can use them in fresh salsa and other dishes and they are still better than what I buy from the grocery).  I found out that most veggies can be frozen and last well for cooking.  I am overly ambitious in planting and less so in canning so I freeze my tomatoes whole and then process them throughout the winter.  Good luck and have fun!
  • Yeah, I do a lot of freezing. I'm trying to do more drying and canning these days, because freezer space is very limited - instead of supermarket meat, we are moving towards more ethical meat, which tends to mean getting an entire freezer full at once. I tend to make summer produce into frozen meals, so I can be lazy all winter long, and still eat well. Fwiw, a hot car works brilliantly as a food dryer. I dry tomatoes and chilis in mine.
    BabyFetus Ticker
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  • I just wanted to say how envious I am of your garden! I'm desperate for a house with a yard. (I'm in a townhouse right now.) I'm growing green peppers, yellow squash, and cherry tomatoes on my itty bitty balcony. I also have a lemon tree and a basil plant. Wish I had more space!
  • We are actually starting our winter garden here!

    For the summer, we had lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, colard greens, carrots, okra (we are in south USA), and our pumpkins are still getting ready for harvesting.

    For our winter garden we are doing lettuce, many different types of peppers and peas, along with squash and onions. I'm jealous you have so much land for so much food!!

    Ashley; Wife to Cody, Mother to Ayden (04/2010) & Cadence (07/2011)
  • imageFreebirdd:

    We are actually starting our winter garden here!

    For the summer, we had lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, colard greens, carrots, okra (we are in south USA), and our pumpkins are still getting ready for harvesting.

    For our winter garden we are doing lettuce, many different types of peppers and peas, along with squash and onions. I'm jealous you have so much land for so much food!!

    ooo, love hearing about your winter garden! I also live in a climate that allows for a limited winter garden. It is winter here now, and I have Swiss chard, peas, onions, lettuce, spinach, and some radishes that I will most likely never eat. Peppers don't make it, we do get some frost. I am indeed lucky to have so much space, but I do have some unique issues. A troupe of f--ing baboons took out my garden last year, and then some warthog destroyed my prize pumpkin patch. I'm lucky to live in a part of the world with such creatures, but also often wish I was the type to blow them away with a shotgun. I have a super soaker, the warthog think it is an excellent free pig wash to go with the main course. Life out here is never dull.
    BabyFetus Ticker
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  • aetgaetg member
    I love to plant herbs since they make such a difference in meals.  If I were you I'd plant some corn or potatoes so you'd have the veggies, fruits, and carbs for your meals.
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  • The drought has been really rough on our garden this year.  It has produced almost nothing, especially after the squirrels hit!  In past years, we've harvested:

     

    -several varieties of pole and bush beans

    -peas

    -salad greens

    - kale/swiss chard/collards/etc

    -squash-- yellow, zucchini, butternut, etc

    -cucumbers-- pickle and standard

    -peppers- bell, hot, etc.

    -tomatoes- love the heirlooms!

    -berries: straw, black, rasp, blue 

    -lots and lots of herbs

     

    I feel like I'm forgetting some things, but those are the basics.  :)  Your garden sounds amazing!  I'd love to have space for an orchard!! 

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