Vegetable Gardening

Pickle Juice

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Jun 2, 2012
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Anyone grow their own veggies?

I started some lettuce seedlings, but a mouse got into my enclosed porch and ate each and every one. So I had to start over again. :p
 
I'm working on my first ever garden that is entirely mine and it's going pretty well. I've already gotten a bunch of lettuce and kale, a few herbs, and a bunch of sugar snap peas. The peas are humongous, I feel like I'm growing monster veggies. I also have some tomato plants that have just started having tiny tomatoes. It's a pretty tiny garden (see picture) but I feel like I get a ton out of it. I started the peas and lettuce from seed, the rest I bought as seedlings. I also have a few cucumber plants that are still tiny.

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I planted beetroot and coriander. The coriander came up about 2cm and then mysteriously disappeared, despite looking healthy. I don't know if birds might eat it, but I never saw them at it. The beetroot is coming up much more slowly.

Mr Snot planted spinach, potatoes, some type of pea that he doesn't know the English name for and something else that he doesn't know any name for. It will be interesting to see what comes up :p
 
Since this is the first year I will be putting in veggies, it's mostly going to be an experiment in sacrificial plants, because I have no idea who is going to get to my stuff before I do. I know I have rabbits, rats, and mice, but I am not sure who else comes out at night. I was out at 4 am looking at the partial eclipse of the Strawberry moon this morning, and someone was grunting at me in the dark. :p

Deer grunt pretty regularly.
 
My garden got put in a few days ago.

Planted tomatoes, zucchini, quinoa (trying this for the 1st time), okra (1st time also), brussel sprouts, several varieties of lettuce, peas, carrots, pole beans, lima beans, swiss chard, sunflowers and spaghetti squash. Of a more permanent nature, huge raspberry hedge, rhubarb, strawberry, current bush, asparagus (just put in this year). On the herb side I have tarragon, horseradish, mint, oregano, thyme, sage, chives, rosemary, basil, parsley, purple cone flowers and hopps. Also have lots of potted flowers and a chokecherry bush and crab apple tree, the latter two are mostly for the birds.
 
I planted quinoa once. It grew nicely and was very pretty. Tasted like purslane.

I've waited and waited to plant potatoes because last year they rotted in the ground and that's not something I want to experience again. Finally I planted most of them and it's been raining for days and will rain for days still. :rolleyes: Excellent timing I have. Hopefully they're cool with that anyway.
 
No, no deer here. I think they have all been shot by hunters. There are deer in town, because there is no shooting allowed within town limits, but there are no deer and no squirrels, in spite of all the acorns all over the place. :(

If there are deer in town I can almost guarantee there are deer out of town. They may have adopted more nocturnal habits if they are being pressured by hunters.
 
we always plant a large garden....this year we planted lettuce, tomato, cucumber, squash, zuccini, cauliflower, rhubarb, strawberries, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, radishes, ect....

peace, love and hippiness:)
 
If there are deer in town I can almost guarantee there are deer out of town. They may have adopted more nocturnal habits if they are being pressured by hunters.
I've never seen evidence of their presence on my property. I see lots of coyote poop, but no deer poop.
 
We live in the city and right behind a grocery store. We don't have deer around us but when we moved in we figured we'd at least see birds and squirrels. Nope. This fall will be three years here and interestingly this winter is the first year we started seeing animals around our place. Since we moved in we've been doing anything outside completely natural or organic or whatever, no pesticides, no fertilizers, etc. I remember when we first moved in if we dug a hole in the ground we wouldn't even see worms or we might see one. Now when we dig there's tons of worms. Birds come to our yard now and there's a squirrel that hangs around our front and back yard. There's also a crow who recently took to pretty much living in our yard. We had a streak of warm weather with no rain (like a week of no rain with 70 degree weather, for this area that's almost like turning into a desert!) and I noticed one day that after I'd water the peony tree and the lavender that this crow would come over and drink water from the black plastic that I've got the area covered with so that the grass doesn't grow back around the tree and the lavender right now. I rinsed off the plastic for him and refilled it with fresh water. He seemed extremely thristy, I think he was having trouble finding water in the neighborhood. Which to me was just weird but I realize that animals around here probably aren't really that used to it not raining for over a week this type of the year. So every day I made sure that he had water and then another crow showed up but that one left once it started raining again. This one still stays in the yard, he'll leave for a bit and then come back. As far as I can tell he's never gone for more than an hour. It's kind of strange. He doesn't bother our veggie plants or anything either. I've taken to calling him Jon Snow. Haha.

It's been interesting seeing how our yard is changing since we started putting in the fruit trees, berry bushes and the veggie beds for annual plants. I'm curious to see what it's like in another year when the bushes and the trees are a bit bigger and we've got more stuff planted. We're going to put in three more veggie boxes this fall and I want to plant more permanent food giving bushes and trees and other plants too.

As for what we have in right now.

For perrenials we've got two cherry trees, fig tree, peach tree, blackberry bush, five blueberry bushes, three hazelnut bushes, asparagus, strawberries and lavender.

For annuals we've got sugar snap peas, broccoli, red peppers, ancho peppers, egg plants, cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, roma tomatoes, some other bigger kind of tomato, patty pan squash, cucumber, zucchini, turnips, rutabagas, carrots, cauliflower, spinach, kale, tat tsoi, romaine lettuce, swiss chard, garlic, cinderella pumpkins, watermelon, scarlett runner beans, Cherokee trail of tears beans, purple podded pole beans, blue potatoes and German butterball potatoes. I've also got some annual plants tucked into all the beds (of course the squashes, watermelon and beans are not in the veggie beds), marigolds, nasturtiums, petunias, and snap dragons. For color and to hopefully keep some unwanted insects away.

I was a bit worried about the potatoes rotting since we get so much rain but we did them in barrels so that we can layer the dirt and hopefully get bigger yields. We drilled holes in the bottom underneath but also around the sides at the bottom we drilled some holes. So far it seems to be working well. The plants are thriving and any time I check the soil after it's rained quite a bit it's never retaining a ton of water or anything.
 
Crap going to freeze tonight, must move all mobile plants into the garage and cover everything else. :eek:
 
Wow, what state do you live in Forster? I complain about it being too cold around here all the time for me but I've never worried about it freezing in June.
 
Wow, what state do you live in Forster? I complain about it being too cold around here all the time for me but I've never worried about it freezing in June.

Montana, my elevation is also over a mile high so I got the northern latitude/high altitude combo to contend with. This should hopefully be the last of the freezing weather till late August.
 
I bet it's beautiful there though! I've driven through a couple of times and I just think Montana is gorgeous but I couldn't do the snow. I remember the last time I went through was at the end of August and some areas were already pretty chilly.
 
My parents grow lots of vegetables and I want to do the same when I have a garden I can dig in, for the moment I'm restricted to pot-plants (and technically I'm not sure I'm allowed them, it's a shared and rented garden). This year I have some herbs: mint, chives, garlic chives, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley and a small bay tree - and one tomato plant indoors that my mum gave me. I hope next year to grow some more things in pots, maybe potatoes and strawberries. Oh and coriander from seed, I forgot this year, is it too late now?
 
I don't know if it's too late to start coriander or not? Probably depends on where you live and how much longer your growing season is?

I planted some butternut and acorn squash today that I bought at a nursery since I found out that in my area we can still plant them and get a harvest. I also planted a cucumber that I accidently bought. I thought I had two butternut squashes and an acorn but somehow I grabbed a cucumber instead of the second butternut plant. I also planted collard greens today and fertilized all the plants. Pulled the swiss chard as it's bolting like crazy and also the tatsoi. Planted red romaine lettuce and spinach seeds in their places. I have no idea how well they'll do since we're heading into the summer but I figured what the heck.

I also picked over 5lbs of sugar snap peas this weekend and harvested more tatsoi, lettuce, and something else. Going to pick our first cherries ever in a few minutes. :)

Potatoes and blackberries are also blooming. :)
 
My sugar snap peas are just about done producing for the season and I am going to cut them down soon. The tallest plants are about 9-10 ft tall. My three.tomato plants already have more than seventy small green tomatoes and are taller than me!