Do you have a garden?

In my case, I’ve started planting the Three Sisters, a traditional indigenous companion planting triad of corn, beans, and squash, as well as a small patch of various medicinal herbs. The corn is planted in mounds, then the beans shortly after so they can climb up the stalk like a trellis, and the squash leaves shade the ground to keep water in. The beans also fix nitrogen into the soil.

I have a garden but I havent decided what the hell im going to grow yet. Last year I did water melons, blueberries, mint, spinach, raspberries, blackberries, and a lot of flowers.

I have a big backyard and front, and all the trees around my yard were originally planted by me when they were mere saplings. They are now about 20 feet tall and growing beautifully——oaks, maples, and larches. I also have a nice little garden in the front with lilacs and other flowers, and a vegetable garden in the back, where we plant tomatoes, buck choy, squash, potatoes, and snow peas every summer.

I love bok choy. Is it hard to grow? I may consider it this year.

@uberbatman No, as a matter of fact it’s a very tough vegetable as long as you give it enough water. And the bonus is that it will produce seeds at the end of summer, so you can collect the seeds and replant next year. Lots of vitamins in buck choy. Buck choy literally means “white vegetable”.

YES! So far I have lettuce, beans, zucchini, raspberries, strawberries already in the ground and tomatoes of many kinds and broccoli, cauliflower and corn waiting to be planted in the garden!! ;)

1. No
2. Weeds
3. Mow the weeds every couple of weeks in the summer.
4. No
5. No

I have both a flower and veggie garden.
The flowers I grow are dahlias,iris,tulip,crocus,daffodil,hyacinth,all kinds of lilies,sunflowers,honeysuckle,hosta,sedum,daisies,vinca,lily of the valley,columbine,roses,hellebore,bachelor buttons,cosmos,marigolds,zinnias,alyssum,calendula,snapdragons.I probably forgot some.I just get what I think is pretty.
As for veggies,I have a few varieties of tomatoes,radish,lettuces,beans,broccoli,cauliflower,chamomile,zucchini,yellow squash,cantelope and meatloaf.;)

Lots of tomatoes and peppers went in this year, and herbs. I’m hoping for a bumper crop of basil so there’s pesto for all. I think I may grow some potatoes as well.

I also have a lot of flowers – zinnias, cleome, snapdragons, roses, black eyed susan, yarrow.

I have what I call my balcony garden every year… my family laughs because I grow all sorts of veggies out there, this years garden is consisting of, spinach (we picked some this weekend), lettuce, cukes (2 varieties), tomatoes (grape and early girl), summer squash, zucchini, carrots (the new comer this year), eggplant (4 varieties), greenbeans, peppers (sweet and hot), chives (garlic and regular), basil and peas…. I have to say this is my biggest variety of veggies so far, I hope all does well again this year. I love my 3 yr old daughter to be able to walk outside and pick something and be able to eat it, she actually ate the spinach raw and loved it last week. She helped me plant all the seeds so its been fun so far having her help water and watching the plants grow slowly.

We have a very large area for gardening at our new home and will be planting very soon. We started from seed a little over a month ago. We have tomatoes, cherry tomato, zucchini, pumpkins, bell peppers, jalapeño, banana pepper and lettuce. We also have strawberries and many herbs. Sweet basil is my favorite.

I’ll be planting blue hydrangea, sunflowers, hollyhock, butterfly bush, gooseneck loosestrife and bee balm,

Not at my building, but I’ll be leading a group of volunteers in work at this garden staring in June through to October.

I planted my first this year! We were eating strawberries today. Peppers are already starting to come in too. Half of my cucumbers died, as did my watermellon a nd cantelope, but teh tomato plants seem to be looking pretty good and I have one beautiful squash with beautiful blossems!

1) No, but I will soon!
2) I plan on mainly growing veggies. Squash, zucchini, bell peppers, carrots, lettuce, broccoli. Maybe some fruit. I like veggie smoothies and I’m going to start drinking them at least 2x’s a day. Growing my own ingredients for the smoothies will be so much cheaper than buying them all of the time.
3) I’ve never gardened before so I have no idea. Maybe tell them how much I love them?
4) Just food.
5) No, but I’m sure my garden will be magical anyway.

My daffodils didn’t flower very well this. year. I wish I knew what was going on. SOmeone else in town said her daffodils didn’t do very well, either. So today, I was tying up the leaves to make space for my impatiens. I was then digging up a lot of daffodils to relocate them. I figure they might be too crowded. That’s what happened when we first moved here. The daffodils didn’t flower. I separated them and relocated them and they did very well for many years up until now.

My lawn is another battle that never ends. My backyard is made up of clay and we are the victim of acid rain. If that weren’t enough, there’s no sunlight to speak of. And, of course, the kids still run all around there.

It’s a great surface for moss. Moss loves acid and clay and shade, and the kids don’t seem to bother it either. But I don’t like moss, so I am continually putting down compost in a place I have cleared of moss. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

Oh, and then there’s the rain runoff that takes the seed away after every planting. And the weeds. I call it my lawn meditation.

@MRSHINYSHOES awesome, thanks for the info

For those with weedy lawns, most of those weeds are edible and extremely nutritious. Plantain, dandelions, clover, violets, and mustard greens are extremely common. They have more nutrient density than lettuces and such. Just make sure you know what you’re eating.

I have been using the square foot gardening method for years with great success. I started out with 2— 2×2 boxes and this year, I have a 4×8 and 4×12 garden that will be the home to at least lettuce, tomato, beans, peas. Cucumber, carrots, onions, cantaloupe, corn, broccoli, squash, eggplant, peppers, and I’m sure some others that I can’t remember.
I grow herbs in small pots along my deck along with blueberries and strawberries and am considering some dwarf indoor citrus trees.
Nothin beats homegrown.

Yup. It’s mostly herbs, although there’s some lettuce, cabbage, and spinach in there as well. A lot of the herbs flower, like lavender, chamomile, chives, and salad burnet. Marigolds are the one flower, but they’re great for eating, too. I also have thyme, dill, fennel, rosemary, tarragon, oregano, several different basils and mints, borage, fenugreek, marjoram, and sage.

There is a 10×10 foot bare spot in front of my new place and nobody else has plans for it.

I am planting basil and dill and tomatos for the kitchen. And morning glories to climb the fence. Otherwise I dunno, but nothing tall which would block the sun to the edibles. Maybe mint for ground cover.

@jaytkay Tomatoes and basil are good companions. Consider planting the basil close to the tomato plants. I don’t know how dill does with them off the top of my head.

I’m in Florida now full-time. I have already been eating my tomatoes. Yummie. I plant veggies in containers and it works like a charm. I have many, many flowers, two live oaks, shrubs and plants I haven’t even learned the names of yet.

Too late, I know, but could you let us know what zone you are planting in and what location?

I am zone 4, in central eastern NYS and have had to amend the soil over the years. Presently, I have one tomato plant growing accidentally in a pot of geraniums in my living room. It has produced several blossoms and I am going to pollinate them tomorrow with a sable brush. It will go outside in two weeks, after danger of frost is over.

Dill, if it is happy, will spread easily and reseed itself year after year.

@Judi Where the heck do you live that you have tomatoes already? Or do you mean the plant itself is flourishing?

I’m eating tomatoes! I live in Central Florida. The plant is flourishing and I have dozens of beautiful tomatoes. It is paradise. Oh, Zone 9.

I’m buying hothouse tomatoes that have no flavor.

Apparently I’m in zone 5B. Never really paid attention to zones before, just temperature and such.

@incendiary_dan, I’ve been told that Florida has four zones. Some places get frost and some don’t for example. It is fun trying new plants that I would never have an opportunity to grow, for instance, in Rhode Island. Good question. It has been interesting reading responses.

And I have the best of all possible worlds. My sister has an enormous vegetable garden, with berry bushes and fruit trees, just four miles from me.

In spite of all her protestations during January and February, she plants way too much (as we speak, she’s out there digging); then she pleads with me during the summer to come and pick…lettuces, peppers, tomatoes, onions, beets, beans, sugar snap peas, peaches, pears, plums, raspberries, strawberries, zucchini, yellow squash, leeks, brocolli, cauliflower, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, chicory, chards.

Yeah, I feel sorry for you having to go help her out with all of those great foods. lol I had an aunt who did that. For years, she canned. Then when she got too much stocked up canned goods, she let me come and get veggies. I loved helping her out.

I would do vegetables, but I have such a small garden that it ends up being so much work for, like, a single head of lettuce or a single dinner of green beans or 5 tomatoes. I’d much rather just buy them at the local farmer’s markets.

I do have a garden. A big garden. We grow lots of different sorts of plants. We have been in drought for most of the time we have been in this house and it has cost us a fortune in plants that just couldn’t cope with the water restrictions. No matter how much we went for the “hardy, can’t kill it” things. Things are actually growing now though because of the rain we have had and it is a joy to see. At the moment the banksias are all in flower and looking beautiful and attracting birds.

As to vegetables. Yes we have a vege patch but as I have discussed elsewhere, so far the only things getting fat on our produce are the possums. I really, really want us to become more self-sufficient and so we need to put up some sort of structure to stop the furry residents of the garden eating everything we grow. I also need to get a water tank put in down that end of the garden so we can use rain water rather than town water for our vege garden.

We do have some great trees too. I have a mulberry tree that provides lots of mulberries. We also have an avocado tree. We have an olive tree (yet to see any olives), mango tree (the dog got the only mango we have seen), custard apple (they grow well). I want to plant more fruit trees down the back paddock but again, it is making sure we have sufficient water. I also have lemon and lime trees in pots but we don’t look after them as we should. Something to work on.

I have a rock garden. It’s in a ring of bricks near the pool where I place the rocks that I collect from each one of my trips.

@Chyna; no tomatoes yet, but the plants look happy. I’m in central California, Zone 9.

Yes! Right now I have some sweetpea (flowers) going crazy all over the place, and beets and carrots ready to be dug up. Cucumbers, 3 kinds of tomatoes, and leeks are coming in nicely. I also have cilantro, basil, and chives in the herb corner.

I had peas and lettuce but I think it got too hot for both of them, so I’m clearing out the old lettuce patch and planting some seeds that are supposed to do better in hot weather. Some new pea vines are growing too, and I’m hoping if I keep them watered they’ll survive longer!

Yes, I do. I have..
basil
tomatoes
sage
oregano
rosemary
aloe
parsley
chives
tarragon
bell peppers
all sorts of lettuce
I also have decorative gardens with many other plants.
I love ferns :)
I also have an avocado tree and an orange tree

Mostly flowers. [ I get them from my family .. sometimes I forget to water them ... and I feel so bad after though I don’t have the proper time for them ]

I used to have a larger garden but I did not use it so I gave it to others so they can use it.

Ok, so I stopped by this nursery on my way home, and they had tomato plants for $1.19. Which is perfect, because part of the reason I don’t buy a lot of plants is because you either start them from seed (which can go horribly wrong) or you buy a big plant for no less than $5. So I picked up a Roma II plant and a Beef Monster (which I’m given to understand is basically Beef Steak, just tweaked just enough so that someone else can get in on that good stuff). I planted them in two different pizza plant planters, with some Sweet Basil, Italian Oregano, Common Thyme, and Sweet Italian Basil. And then I got some Winter Butternut Squash and some pickling cucumbers. All for under 10 bucks. Woo!

Does anyone know how I know when to pick the three zuchini that are growing out of my plant? This is my first garden and I have no idea.

Judi: When they’re the size you want to use, nab ‘em. :) Smaller means more flavor and tender; you don’t want baseball bat zucchini.

I have a garden of sorts. I live in a condo, so all I can do is plant in pots, but I grow an amazing amount of food for having the situation I do. Because my space is very limited, I try to grow only crops that produce all season long: things like (smaller, pickling) cucumbers and (cherry) tomatoes, rather than things like winter squash or melons, which require a season of care but only pay out at the end. This year I’m trying basil again, although leafy things (like herbs or lettuce) don’t do so well for me. I also grow chives, nasturtiums (edible, spicy flowers!), sometimes zucchini (when I can avoid the borers), and there’s a patch of sweet woodruff that Mr. Laureth uses in his homebrewing.

One year, I also managed to grow a loofa gourd, the kind people sometimes use as a shower sponge. The vine made about three circuits around my tiny garden, but it produced a sponge on my patio. I’ve used the loofa as a prop when I’ve done some small presentations about how even people like me can be more self-sufficient and eat better food.

In Massachusetts.

Do you garden? Yes
What are you growing? bush beans, broccoli, cucumber, kale, lettuce, onion, peas, peppers, radish, spinach, zucchini, tomato, potato, garlic, blueberry, strawberry, asparagus, nasturtium, cantaloupe, herbs
Is there any special arrangements or techniques you use? 8’x3’x8” boxes, and 35 gl drums that I cut in half to plant specific crops (potato). I grow asparagus in dedicated boxes because it is perennial. Boxes make crop rotation easier and allows for soil amendment to suit individual crops.
Or is it decorative? I try for a mix of decorative and functional. I have an array of flowers and shrubs.

By the way, you have an interesting blog.

@birdland33 Thanks! I should write in it more. What part of MA are you in? I’m a bit south of Worcester.

I live in Taunton

i have a garden! since 1985, i started gardening. around 30 years past, i planted kinds of flowers, trees, vegetables. It’s a nice journey with nice plants and tools.