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What are you growing this year?

6K views 83 replies 28 participants last post by  crabapple 
#1 ·
My herbs did really well last year. My tomatoes and peppers, not so much.

This year, I'm planting a lot more herbs. I think I have 14 different types. I'm trying tomatoes again in a different part of the yard that gets better sun. I'm also adding a yellow tomato that did really well at local farms last year. Two jalapeño plants and one red pepper plant. I still haven't decided if I'm going to do some onions and some greens yet. There's a lot more I'd plant if I could get my wife to eat it.
 
#2 ·
I have lettuce, carrots, snow peas, green beans, lemon cucumbers & beets in the green house along with my herbs, rosemary, sage, lemon thyme, oregano, parsley & garlic chives.
The rhubarb is going crazy outside along with the raspberries.

Planted seed potatoes last week and have squash, cucumbers and tomatoes sprouting in the seed trays, also found some San Marzano seeds today and got them started.
The greenhouse got up to 90 yesterday so things should really grow good this year.
I need to build a couple of planter boxes in the greenhouse and try some melons this year. First year with a real greenhouse and want to try to grow more stuff than I have room for!
 
#5 ·
Not much since last year our garden was a flop due to excessive rains. Now we're planning on doing container-scaping on the deck, but mostly herbs, and tomatoes.

I love the idea of gardening, but I'm so afraid of toads that once they start coming out I can't harvest what I grow for fear i'll run into them hiding in the bush waiting to jump on my neck.
 
#9 ·
I've got Cabbage, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Spinich and Lettuce outside.

Planted Beets Carrots and Radishes but they haven't popped up yet.

Inside I've got Tomatoes, Cabbage, Squash , Zucchini and my Hot peppers started. Also my herbs. Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary, Oregano, Basils, Tarragon, Chives and Cumin.

Snails devastated my garden last year. My Cabbage looked like lace and the ##@ !!***&&&^'s ate the Squash flowers as they bloomed. Anyone have a way to keep those little poops away?

I've got 2 kitties so the poisons won't cut it and if it washes away with the rain it hasn't helped in the past.

I'm going to try the beer thing but I've got a feeling I'm just going to have a bunch of snails who are having a party and great time as they eat my crops. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/crying.gif
 
#11 ·
Birds will help with the caterpillars but I think you need ladybugs for the aphids.

Bees are a good thing but too many can be a pain to have around.

Best of luck with your garden this year. Each new season brings on it's own set of issues to be addressed. It's a live and learn kind of thing. Guess that's why I attempt it every year. Ma Nature and me have to fight it out. She has her rules and I have my requests of her. She always wins. Guess I need to ask Father Time about that. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif

I've heard copper keeps snails away but I haven't found a way to surround my garden with it that is affordable. Let's hope getting the little SOB's drunk works. And I know many of you could give me a wonderful recipe for them but it's just not in me to eat the little slime balls. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/lol.gif
 
#12 ·
#14 ·
Well - as long as the winter seemed to last it sure left amazingly fast.

I'm not quite ready to plant anything ... frost is still in the ground... but at least I can see the soil!

Going to get some onion bulbs and spinach seeds, swiss chard and kale on Saturday.  Might be a bit early but as soon as the frost is out of the soil they'll be going in.  

Maybe another week or so if temps hold up.
 
#15 ·
I've heard copper keeps snails away but I haven't found a way to surround my garden with it that is affordable. Let's hope getting the little SOB's drunk works. And I know many of you could give me a wonderful recipe for them but it's just not in me to eat the little slime balls. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/lol.gif
Copper is an excellent defense against snails and slugs. They simply don't like to touch it.

I use copper window screen. A ring of copper screen pressed into the soil around the plant. If you can get enough copper screen it would be worth putting a barrier around an entire raised bed.

I replenished my supply from a local perpetual barn sale. I found a few screens in their junk pile that had rotted sashes. I don't think they realized they were copper screens so I got them for next to nothing. Threw them in with an old bent up dirt fork that I gave the $2.00 for because It had the handle I needed for my trusty old dirt fork.
 
#16 · (Edited)
We use the beer every year. It takes about a couple cases of cheep( swedish cheep) beer to cover our perimiter to keep them out. I cut the top off a bury the can into the ground level at the top. We have a bit over 1000 sq meters and i plant the cans every couple meters or so, except for the driveway but they arent a fan of sliming along on gravel. Now if I could just find a way to keep the deer and moose out.
 
#19 ·
I am a little lucky in that  my new workplace comes with 5 hectares ( about 15 acres) of gardens and orchards. and 10 hectares of  grape vines for wine

 No one has lived here for 10 years, so its all a bit run down, but  so far we have discovered:

 wild artichokes

wild onions

 Wild berries of all sorts

 wild asparagus

 wild arugula/Rocket

 wild thyme

wild lavender

wild rosemary

wild chamomile

40 apple trees of at least four varieties

 20 damsom plum trees

20 victoria plum trees

 10 or so fuji apple/pear trees

10 or so pear trees

 a dozen peach trees

 a dozen or so kiwi fruit plants

6/7 nectarine trees

at least 30 fig trees fruiting with at least two kinds of figs

a dozen or so cherry trees

We have planted basil . lettuces etc and hoping they come up.

 There is no real winter here, :) it does drop down to  10/12 degrees centigrade ( 45/50 F)  in feb for a week or two.

 gonna be a good year.
 
#22 ·
So far, I have onions, shallots, garlic, leek, kohlrabi, romana and green salad in the ground. Also various potatoes - Bamberger, La Ratte, and some non-denominational early sort that the neighbour gave me. Chilis, bell peppers and tomatoes in various sorts are still in the seed trays, but gonna be transplanted into pots soon. Some eggplants and zucchini in the greenhouse, also put in the seeds for borlotto beans, yellow bush beans, peas, corn and two sorts of cucumber by now. Oh, and some navettes. It is getting out of hand. Not to speak of the herb collection....

The new greenhouse helps:

 
#24 ·
Copper is an excellent defense against snails and slugs. They simply don't like to touch it.

I use copper window screen. A ring of copper screen pressed into the soil around the plant. If you can get enough copper screen it would be worth putting a barrier around an entire raised bed.

I replenished my supply from a local perpetual barn sale. I found a few screens in their junk pile that had rotted sashes. I don't think they realized they were copper screens so I got them for next to nothing. Threw them in with an old bent up dirt fork that I gave the $2.00 for because It had the handle I needed for my trusty old dirt fork.
SD I 'm glad you found such a nice source of copper for your garden. I run across scrap copper tubing in my work so I'll try to make that work . I've done one small bed with 3/8" tubing and need to find more for the others. I hope it works as advertised. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif.

Legom, I'm glad to hear the beer method works. I'm going to give that a try too. I've also heard that yeast functions in place of beer.

Anyone have a recipe of how much yeast to water can be used to defeat those nasty snails? /img/vbsmilies/smilies/confused.gif It seems like using yeast might be cheaper then getting the snails drunk. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/lol.gif

I don't want to eat them but if it comes down to it I'll take anyway to get those SOB's from eating my cabbage and squash up. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/thumb.gif
 
#25 ·
We, having brown thumbs, are growing Perenial Coriander (Eryngium foetidum) on the kitchen window-sill. It is growing well, at the moment, and is very strong smelling ... a little goes a long way ...

# Long Leafed Coriander, Pointed Cilantro, Cilentro, Culantro, Thorny Coriander, Mexican Coriander, Chinese Coriander, Thai Coriander, Phak Chee Farang, Ngo Gai, Daunketumbar Jawa
 
#26 ·
SD I 'm glad you found such a nice source of copper for your garden. I run across scrap copper tubing in my work so I'll try to make that work . I've done one small bed with 3/8" tubing and need to find more for the others. I hope it works as advertised. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif.

Legom, I'm glad to hear the beer method works. I'm going to give that a try too. I've also heard that yeast functions in place of beer.

Anyone have a recipe of how much yeast to water can be used to defeat those nasty snails? /img/vbsmilies/smilies/confused.gif It seems like using yeast might be cheaper then getting the snails drunk. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/lol.gif

I don't want to eat them but if it comes down to it I'll take anyway to get those SOB's from eating my cabbage and squash up. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/thumb.gif
I am getting some runner ducks. Girlfriend's mother swears on them for eating the snails and (mostly) leaving the vegetables alone.
 
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