Growing Food

[The Hammer]

Does anyone else grow their own foods?

I had a chicken Caesar salad for dinner tonight and half of the lettuce, was stuff that my wife and I grew ourselves.

I've got to say, there is a deep satisfaction in enjoying a food that I have grown myself.

Next up, I need to learn how to raise my own meat birds (chickens).

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Many years. Lots of beans and squashes since they don't require a lot of upkeep and are nutrient dense. Couple of fruit and nut trees for the same.

Chickens are great but they are messy. They need roaming space for best self sufficiency but they will scratch up any carefully maintained grass area and can't be let near your garden. They eat more helpful bugs than harmful ones.
Great way to break down compost into fertilizer tho.

 

[F1fan]

I grow tomatoes, beets (good for the blood, as I'm an athlete), kale, and a variety of greens, lettuces and arugula. The heat is killing my greens, and they are going to seed already. Yuck. Last year I had so much lettuce I was giving it away. All organic.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Does anyone else grow their own foods?

I had a chicken Caesar salad for dinner tonight and half of the lettuce, was stuff that my wife and I grew ourselves.

I've got to say, there is a deep satisfaction in enjoying a food that I have grown myself.

Next up, I need to learn how to raise my own meat birds (chickens).

View attachment 63755

My cardiologist wants me to grow a garden. I think its a great idea, and definitely nothing can beat fresh homegrown produce directly from the field.

 

[Twilight Hue]

My selection is tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, strawberries , green beans, and sweet peas.

 

[The Hammer]

My selection is tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, strawberries , green beans, and sweet peas.

My garden this year is: Potatoes, Carrots, Parsnips, Onions, Lettuce, Chamomile, Catmint and eggplant.

 

[Subduction Zone]

My garden this year is: Potatoes, Carrots, Parsnips, Onions, Lettuce, Chamomile, Catmint and eggplant.

That sounds a lot like a western Washington garden. Too bad that tomatoes do not grow decently here. They need a lot of hot weather to ripen propperly.

I grew up on what was a Grade B dairy farm when my father bought it. He did not buy it to use as a farm. We eventually started our own garden. This was in Minnesota with four real seasons. It got larger and larger every year and eventually we almost never bought vegetables. I was spoiled for a long time when it came to veggies.

 

[Subduction Zone]

I grow tomatoes, beets (good for the blood, as I'm an athlete), kale, and a variety of greens, lettuces and arugula. The heat is killing my greens, and they are going to seed already. Yuck. Last year I had so much lettuce I was giving it away. All organic.

Too late this year, but always plant a lot of beets. If you plant a lot of beets you will eventually have to thin them out. Oh noes!!! There is nothing better than fresh beet greens. Clean it and boil the whole plant. When the leaves are tender it is done. Just a skoosh of vinegar and whoa! One note, if you eat a lot of them, and I can't stop, you may be shocked by red pee.

 

[InChrist]

Yes, growing a large garden of organic vegetables; kale, lettuce, red and green cabbage, broccoli, radishes, onions, cucumbers, carrots, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, corn, zucchini, butternut squash, and beets. Also, have apple, cherry and pears trees, egg layer chickens, ducks, milk goats, a couple turkeys and four guineas.

 

[ChristineM]

We no longer have the space to grow much. What we have tried in pots usually fails except for strawberries, we have loads of strawberries.

It's a shame really, we used to have a quite large veg patch, potatoes, carrot's, lettuce beans, peas etc and a small orchard wirh apple and pear trees.

Yes eating home grown food always seems to taste better

 

[Guitar's Cry]

I grow a small garden that usually produces some pumpkins, peas, tomatoes, and taters.

 

[pearl]

I had a chicken Caesar salad for dinner tonight and half of the lettuce, was stuff that my wife and I grew ourselves.

I've got to say, there is a deep satisfaction in enjoying a food that I have grown myself.

I do not but my daughter and her husband do and she has said the same about nothing like the satisfaction that comes from growing our own food. They have a variety of lettuce, squash, cukes, etc. Thanks to canning they enjoy the fruits of the garden all year. Some things actually return and are found growing in the compost. He clams and exchanges some for lobsters, a nephew works on a commercial fishing boat and shares the swordfish caught. With prices going so high at the supermarkets I am really beginning to envy them.

 

[Audie]

We no longer have the space to grow much. What we have tried in pots usually fails except for strawberries, we have loads of strawberries.

It's a shame really, we used to have a quite large veg patch, potatoes, carrot's, lettuce beans, peas etc and a small orchard wirh apple and pear trees.

Yes eating home grown food always seems to taste better

Maybe I could do hanging gardens.
Not enough room in HK for more.
Tho I do have a couple of cycads on my
patio.

 

[ChristineM]

Maybe I could do hanging gardens.
Not enough room in HK for more.
Tho I do have a couple of cycads on my
patio.

We grow strawberries in a drain pipe.

Sort of like this but home made hanging from a hook in the wall.

Its equivalent to a 20 ft run of strawberries and takes up about 2 sq feet. It produces from May to October.

 

[Subduction Zone]

We grow strawberries in a drain pipe.

Sort of like this but home made hanging from a hook in the wall.

Its equivalent to a 20 ft run of strawberries and takes up about 2 sq feet. It produces from May to October.

View attachment 63764

That is genius! Though in my state it probably would not work. We have two seasons when it comes to something like that. Too wet and too dry.

 

[ChristineM]

That is genius! Though in my state it probably would not work. We have two seasons when it comes to something like that. Too wet and too dry.

Because the open top area is so small for the number of plants we had trouble keeping it moist at the bottom. It sheltered from the rain anyway so we have to water it often.

The idea was, water from the top would seep down... Hah, foiled again batman... we really had to soak it for enough water for the plants at the bottom to survive risking over watering at the top.
We've recently changed the compost and sunk a 1 1/2 pipe with plenty of holes drilled. Now water reaches the bottom ;-)

 

[Subduction Zone]

Because the open top area is so small for the number of plants we had trouble keeping it moist at the bottom. It sheltered from the rain anyway so we have to water it often.

The idea was, water from the top would seep down... Hah, foiled again batman... we really had to soak it for enough water for the plants at the bottom to survive risking over watering at the top.
We've recently changed the compost and sunk a 1 1/2 pipe with plenty of holes drilled. Now water reaches the bottom ;-)

Here it rains nonstop until the Fourth of July. Then the tap is turned off until September.

It would be wet all the way down until July here.

 

[ChristineM]

Here it rains nonstop until the Fourth of July. Then the tap is turned off until September.

It would be wet all the way down until July here.

You could always build it a little rain hat

 

[England my lionheart]

A great way to grow potatoes is not to did a trench and plant them with compost,less arduous is to put the seeding potatoes on the ground and cover with compost and soil and let the potatoes do the work,it works well.

 

[Wildswanderer]

We have a few things growing. Green Beans and tomatoes and spinach and onions. Used to grow lettuce but most of it never got ate.
We have egg laying chickens, and have raised meat chickens before.
We are selling off our sheep so we can be less tied down.
To me the best homegrown meat are the deer that live on the neighbors corn. Free meat we don't even have to feed!