Organic produce

[memmey]

Yesterday was the first time I ever purchased a box from farmer sorta like a co-op. I was leary of what I would get and I guess I was thinking it would be like the grocery BUT it was heirloom and whatever is in season on the day of picking. I was surprized.
In the "box" I got golden zucchini, green/white heirloom zucchini, cucumbers, red basil and a few italian green eggplant. A bunch of zinnia flowers and my third of a bag of red worm compost. It cost $20. I see now how this works and I can't wait till fall greens a here.
I have my side by side freezer full and I don't hink I can fit another thing in but as I use it I will refill it. Today I am making pesto. This starting to be so much fun.
Organic is usually SO expensive but this is do-able. The vegetables are not pretty and perfect but they a clean and very fresh and no pesticide.
It is so great to finally get to be part of this movement toward community farmer produce. I live in the country and here people sell vegetables but they also embrace chemicals.
This guy is young and excited and it is contaigous...oh I wish I was in my thirties again with all this life experience.:p

You know when my generation starts to get on board with this movement then you know it is really happening and we can be hopeful for our grandchildren.

[yarborough house]

Memmy,

They have a program here in NC called Carolina Grown and you go online and register for a certain level of the program then each month you shop for your veggies, dairy, meat, breads etc..they deliver it to you. It is all from NC farms locally. I am thinking of trying it out later on - it seems better for you and also supports the farmers who need the help as far as I am concerned. I mean what a terrible day it will be if everything we have available to us is from overseas.

[vintage girl]

We grow our own produce. It is chemical free. We compost and use fresh pigeon poo for fertilizer. Hubs plants a very large garden, so we always have enough for an army. I supply my coworkers and our local shelter with:

tomatoes
squash
peppers
onions
watermelon
beets
beans
eggplant
zucchini
apples
tangerines
tangelos
grapefruit
lemons
avocado
etc etc

At one time we also raised some of our own beef. But I had a hard time with that as the "beef" were my pets, so we stopped that. I eat a lot more chicken than beef nowadays and a lot more veggies. My chickens now live with my neighbor and I get my fresh eggs from her. Nothing like fresh eggs. I am thinking about raising chickens again, I miss them. Just have to find time. I can't wait until I retire. I can spend all day with my animals and have 100 chickens if I want:D

The concept of "community gardening" is really nothing new. It has been around since the beginning of time. It all starts with a garden in a backyard, and sharing with your neighbors, community, etc. I also barter with my veggies and fruit. I cannot sew, but there is a wonderful seamstress in town, who cannot garden. So I take her fresh veggies and she does any sewing that I need done. I have also traded veggies for homemade wine, vet services, and a very very very good sweet potatoe pie from a southern coworker. Years ago when I had my petting zoo I traded a huge basket of oranges and lemons for a sweet little potbelly pig. He was not fixed and was giving his owners fits. He lived with us (after getting fixed), for many many years, and made a lot of kids very happy.

Unfortunately over the years, with both parents working, busy schedules, commuting, etc it just became easier to go to the grocery store. Organic also does not need to be expensive. You can do it yourself in your own backyard if you have the space and the time. If you don't than I believe you should support your local growers. Kudos to you both for doing that:)

Memmey sounds like the young man you bought your produce from will do well. Especially since he is excited about his business venture. Putting the flowers in the produce box was also a very good touch. I hope he is successful:)

[memmey]

:)I made my pesto!!! Then got a call from a customer kinda down on her luck right now so we bartered a haircut for fresh figs off her tree. I a really starting to find this whole idea so MUCH FUN.
I have this tree that I had to cut years ago(:() and it is now rotting down and I think that is where the garden will be. I thought about hauling it off but then a friend asked me why would I do that, it is great compost. Duh!! I never thought about it. Which brings me to the idea that you have to put yur head in the right place to carry this out. Things that I casually did before now I see were not really green or benefical to me.
So much stuff does not go by me now and I think about it's end result. Salt being one of them. I had eaten processed for SO long that I had huge tolerance for salt that I no longer have. You could not have convienced me of that 2 years ago.
I may take a dirt nap tommorrow but today I feel pretty good and I can see that this not hard to do.:p

Vin this fall I am going to plant fruit trees!!!!!

[vintage girl]

Memmey you will love having fruit trees. We have pear, orange, apple, tangerine, tangelo, grapefruit and lemon. I adore figs. Not only were you able to help someone out by bartering, but you came out a winner also. Everyone around here thinks I am a nut, but they are slowly starting to come around. Especially if I have something they want:D

[canadiyank]

Sounds wonderful! I enjoy gardening, but our lot is pretty much bare right now, we moved in last year and it was all dirt from new construction. I've got an almond tree in the front, my compost bin going in the back, and some landscape plants in but I'm excited to get going on the garden beds this spring!!!

What did you end up doing with the green and white zucchini?

[RoseMary]

canadiyank, do you do raised bed/square foot gardening?

At our house, it is our goal to do well at this type of gardening, but we are on our third year of getting 'set up':o. We had an extrememly hot and dry summer last year, so our yields were low and the majority of our plants just burned up in the sun. We're hoping for better success this year.

[canadiyank]

At my last house I had one big garden bed and then several smaller terraced ones, so I've never done sq. ft/raised bed gardens. My dad has raised beds and I plan to put a series of them in around here, not sure exactly how yet! I live in the desert so I'm planning on putting a drip irrigation system in, too, that worked well at our last place.

[Hillary Black]

I am enjoying the book: 52 Weeks in the Southern California Garden and I am looking to plant some flowers and veggies soon.

I am curious what everyone's top 5 to 10 veggies/flowers are!

I know we're all over the place geographically but I thought it would be fun to find out.

Right now here's a start to my "can't have a garden without..." list:

1. lavender
2. roses
3. lemon tree
4. hydrangea
5. jasmine
6. mock orange (pittosporum)

More to come...!!

[vintage girl]

I am a lousy gardener, but hubs loves to garden. He just planted:

Watermelon
Tomatoes
Onions
Peppers
Zucchini
Squash

As far as flowers, we normally only do roses, as they are so easy to grow. We have a very large rose garden, 30 bushes. We also have lemons, oranges, tangerines, tangelos, apples, avocado and grapefruit.

I love this time of year because I have a pitcher of fresh squeezed OJ in the fridge everyday. I have so many oranges, tangerines and tangelos, that I supply all my family and the neighbors:D

Would love to have more flowers, but we just do not have the time to maintain them with all our animals, work, etc.

[canadiyank]

I just bought a citrus tree (supposed to have lemons, limes, and oranges on it) and it's going to be a houseplant, as it's too cold for them outside here in the winter. It's doing quite well, can't wait to have fruit! We've had several blossoms. I won't be supplying the neighbourhood, tho! :)

[Hillary Black]

I just noticed my neighbor's California poppies so I have to add those to my "to plant" list!

[Hillary Black]

Let us know what you are growing this season!
Would love to know more favorites from across the country--

[koolmimi]

We moved into our new house in August (not a good time of year for planting). So far we have planted a Tulip tree, hydrangeas, gardenias and ornamental grasses. My plumarias have survived the move and winter and are leafing out. I have my herbs in pots on the deck. I planted dill, basil, Italian parsley, oregano, thyme, terragon, chives and garlic chives. I love being able to have fresh herbs for my cooking.

Our lot is very steep. The deck in the back is 15 feet off the ground. We will have to terrace the hillside for a garden. That sounds like a project for next year. In the meantime I have tomatoes planted on my deck.

I am getting a compost container that is off the ground and you can crank to keep it mixed. I will put it on the back stairs landing. It will be out of the way and still accessable.

Claudia

[Hillary Black]

Pesticide- and herbicide-free to save the bees (and other living things)...

My compost runneth over! ;-)

[vintage girl]

Hubs got our garden planted and it is going gangbusters. He put in tomatoes, green peppers, onion, cucumber, watermelon, zucchini, and squash.

Last year it was so funny. One of our chihuahua's loves carrots and we would catch him in the garden pulling up the carrots and eating them:D We even found some buried in the yard.

[chyna]

My chinese cresteds love tomatoes and help themselves to them all the time. Now we plant extras just we all can have them. Same for the strawberries. :p

We're doing tomatoes (of course), pumpkins, various gourds (for decorating, birdhouse, snake, small round), watermelon, peppers and going to try corn again. for some reason the last time I did corn I got nothing but stunted. Not sure if it is the location or I planted them too late.

We have two raised bed strawberry boxes and a row of thornless raspberries, two pear trees, a cherry tree and a plum bush. and a grape arbor that my cats keep climbing so I need to do something about that this year.

And endless flowers.:o

[RoseMary]

We put out raspberries and blueberries, but several managed to drown from all the rain:(. I had put out 50 strawberry plants in raised beds and I still have about half of them. I may try to replace them in the next week or so.

Our tomatoes look great and a few are even starting to bloom. I have squash plants and cucumber plants ready to put out, but the bed isn't ready for them. We also plan on planting some green beans and watermelons.

[allen820]

We have the raised bed thing going on. I do the veggies; my wife does the flowers (I adhere to my grandfather's thinking that if you can't eat it, why grow it?!). This year, we have had spinach, green onions, over-wintered cabbage, kale, and radishes. Within a week we'll have snap peas and regular peas. Have beans, lettuce, okra, cucumbers and squash on the way! We have a couple of rosemary bushes, basil, and chives, too.

As for non-edibles, we have lavender, hydranges, roses, a bunch of bushes and vines I can't recognize, and many wildflowers. With a few exceptions, we have tried to stick with native plants for the landscaping piece.

So, I guess you would say my favorites are 1) plants you can eat!, and 2) native wildflowers.

As an aside, a pretty neat thing happens each year in this community. A group in the local community church has an annual plant sale they call "from our yard to yours." Essentially, the folks split and pot plants from their yards and sell them as a fund raiser. The only plants involved are native shrubs, vines, and wildflowers. They have been doing this for years. Many, many yards in this community have been thusly landscaped.

Allen

[canadiyank]

That's a really neat idea, Allen!

[shabbychick]

In spite of the fact that we've had maybe five sunny days in my area this spring, I bought a tomato plant and a sweet pepper plant yesterday, and I'm going to try growing them in containers. Last year was terrible for tomatoes, and I have a feeling this year won't be much better. I bought a lovely fuscia in a hanging basket a few weeks ago and put it out front, but it's not looking too good right now. I don't know if it's lack of sun, too much rain, or what. I put flowers and herbs in my containers a couple of weeks ago but have been holding out on veggies until the weather improves. Lettuce was a lost cause for me last year, but I might try it again this year if we ever see the sun again.

I have a question about companion plants. When I was looking at basil in one of our herb books, it said to plant it next to tomatoes for better flavor. So I'm wondering if that means the basil will taste better, or the tomato will taste better, and I'm wondering what one plant has to do with the taste of another one if you're not actually eating them together on a plate. If there's any truth to this, then can I plant the basil in same container as the tomato and just let them tangle together? I don't have any huge containers (too hard to move around) so am wondering if trying to cram two basil plants and a tomato into one container will just cause them all to die. Any words of wisdom for someone with a black thumb?

[canadiyank]

I'm not sure about the companion planting - I always thought that was to help with pests, not for flavour, but I really have no idea!

We've got mostly everything in, although my hubby is making squash hills for me as I type. I've got purple and green bush beans; two types of peas; thai, bell, and jalapeno peppers; coloured and regular carrots; beefsteak and roma tomatoes; bush and vining cukes; raspberries; blueberries; and tons of herbs.

Well, he's done - so better go get my squash planted! :)

[allen820]

I agree with Canadiyank, everything I have read indicates that companion planting is about pest control or soil nutrient management. In reality, I don't have much faith that either is real, so one may as well add flavor to the mix! The idea of succession planting for disease control, or following a nitrogen fixer (i.e. peas) with a nitrogen user (i.e. leafy crops), is more tried and true. I have heard that interplanting marigolds and radishes are good for pest control. What the heck, whether it works or not, you can eat the radishes, and the marigolds are nice to look at.

Allen

[shabbychick]

I went ahead and planted the basil in a container next to the container in which I have the tomatoes. I figure that's close enough. We just aren't getting enough sunshine right now to let things really grow. My tomatoes aren't looking too good.