I like to peel them, slice thin and eat them raw. Of course, you get the smaller ones from golf ball size and a bit larger. They tend to get tough and woody when let to get large.
Yes, I also sometimes cube, then steam, and eat them cooked. Not bad with some butter on them.
I have never tried the greens. Seems the lil bugs make so many holes in the greens, they just don't look good.
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Jardin du Fort
- Senior Member
- Posts: 243
- Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:59 pm
- Location: Fort Wayne, IN
When I was a kid, my dad had a veggie garden in the back yard. It was about 40' square, and in the farthest back part of the property, right next to the alleyway that wasn't there. 
He dug it up by hand, and added a couple trailerfull loads of sludge from the city wastewater treatment plant. I don't know that he ever spent enough time in the garden after that because what I mostly remember was tall weeds.
After I got married I put in a garden at our first rental house. It was a hybrid "square foot" Jervens garden with raised "beds" although they were all interconnected. I had some pretty good results from that garden, but had to leave it after the second year.
My second garden was four raised beds. Tomatoes and corn and zucchini and I don't remember what else. Only one year.
Garden three was more raised beds. I had prepped them in the fall, and planted winter rye as a cover crop until spring. That got tilled in, and I planted a bunch of tomatoes. Then I had to work overtime for the next four months. The garden had a lot of weeds, but I managed to harvest about two bushels of tomatoes. Lesson learned: if you don't have time for it, don't do it!
So this year I will be putting in ONE raised bed, about 4' x 10'. I've found a source for compost at $15 a yard³. That, added to my reasonably black dirt in the yard (that is on top of orange clay) should be decent for a start. That will be for summer produce. I may put in a second bed for overwintering crops, covered by a row hoop. There used to be five mouths to feed, but now there are only two. And I don't feel obligated to feed the whole neighborhood. And yes, I am in-city so there's not a lot of acreage to work with.
Where the garden is going to go:
He dug it up by hand, and added a couple trailerfull loads of sludge from the city wastewater treatment plant. I don't know that he ever spent enough time in the garden after that because what I mostly remember was tall weeds. After I got married I put in a garden at our first rental house. It was a hybrid "square foot" Jervens garden with raised "beds" although they were all interconnected. I had some pretty good results from that garden, but had to leave it after the second year.
My second garden was four raised beds. Tomatoes and corn and zucchini and I don't remember what else. Only one year.
Garden three was more raised beds. I had prepped them in the fall, and planted winter rye as a cover crop until spring. That got tilled in, and I planted a bunch of tomatoes. Then I had to work overtime for the next four months. The garden had a lot of weeds, but I managed to harvest about two bushels of tomatoes. Lesson learned: if you don't have time for it, don't do it!
So this year I will be putting in ONE raised bed, about 4' x 10'. I've found a source for compost at $15 a yard³. That, added to my reasonably black dirt in the yard (that is on top of orange clay) should be decent for a start. That will be for summer produce. I may put in a second bed for overwintering crops, covered by a row hoop. There used to be five mouths to feed, but now there are only two. And I don't feel obligated to feed the whole neighborhood. And yes, I am in-city so there's not a lot of acreage to work with.
Where the garden is going to go:
\
Lot of different ways to "skin a cat", or grow a pepper. Most of my gardening has been regular "find a corner of the yard with soil, sun and water, till it, plant it, and hope". That worked so well for so long. Currently, however, I have a lack of sun problem, poor soil, and ran into some soil diseases, wilts, etc.
That, along with a desire to better control august weeds, has led me to a "Boxes and Barrels" gardening style:
Boxes:
Barrels: (they are not really barrels, but close to it)
The original plan for the "pier garden" was with soil in both boxes. This worked great the first year
Have to throw in one picture of my wife's Iris'. They are beautiful this year
That, along with a desire to better control august weeds, has led me to a "Boxes and Barrels" gardening style:
Boxes:
Barrels: (they are not really barrels, but close to it)
The original plan for the "pier garden" was with soil in both boxes. This worked great the first year
Have to throw in one picture of my wife's Iris'. They are beautiful this year
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ReptileAddiction
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 866
- Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2012 12:52 am
- Location: Southern California
Wow. You guys have some awesome gardens! I do not have a dedicated veggie garden at the moment because I have almost no property and no where to put a veggie garden. I am going to build (hopefully in the next few months if I have the time) a raised bed garden on the side of my house. Then I will have be able to produce a good number of veggies 
. I grew up in suburbia. My mom always had a big flower garden that I would help her in and a small patch of tomatos and strawberries. I started gardening with my mom as soon as I could walk and have loved it ever since. My relatives all own/ed farms in the midwest and I would go stay with my great aunt for a week or two every summer. They had a large farm and a large garden too. The property is still beautiful but my great uncle is dead and my aunt doesnt garden many veggies any more. Someday I want to own the farm. 
. I grew up in suburbia. My mom always had a big flower garden that I would help her in and a small patch of tomatos and strawberries. I started gardening with my mom as soon as I could walk and have loved it ever since. My relatives all own/ed farms in the midwest and I would go stay with my great aunt for a week or two every summer. They had a large farm and a large garden too. The property is still beautiful but my great uncle is dead and my aunt doesnt garden many veggies any more. Someday I want to own the farm. 
Wow! What a great thread! I love seeing/hearing about all the different styles, sizes, and areas we garden in!
My gardening style has changed a lot over the years, dictated mostly by the property I lived on and the time I had at any given point.
When I was a kid we had a "small" family citrus orchard and our garden was a half acre of land closest to the house. I always hated working in the garden and especially in the orchard. Painting trunks, pulling weeds and picking up rotten fruit, harvesting through thorns and then having to dress up nice, and behave when we went to the markets to sell or negotiate price. No, thank you! The only thing I remember liking was all the melons and the large strawberry bed and non-citrus trees in the front yard. I wasn't upset and didn't understand the implications when we started having to parcel out the land and eventually sell even the small plot we had left with the house and garden, as the city encroached on us and large corporate farms were to difficult to compete against.
I remember the first garden I ever had on my own. I was 20 and my roommate suggested we start a small garden in our new house. He was shocked to come home later that day to the whole yard tilled up and me dividing up rows and marking off paths. I was even more shocked to realize I was loving it.
From that moment I have always had a garden or veggie plants of some kind. When I lived in apartments I grew tomatoes on the patio and would hang baskets of flowers or strawberries from the trees by my unit. Now I live in a condo and have to have a raised bed and large pots, as I am not allowed to dig. Stupid HOA! It is a true blessing to have a garden of any kind and I have enjoyed learning ( and continuing to learn) all the different methods and crops one can enjoy!
My gardening style has changed a lot over the years, dictated mostly by the property I lived on and the time I had at any given point.
When I was a kid we had a "small" family citrus orchard and our garden was a half acre of land closest to the house. I always hated working in the garden and especially in the orchard. Painting trunks, pulling weeds and picking up rotten fruit, harvesting through thorns and then having to dress up nice, and behave when we went to the markets to sell or negotiate price. No, thank you! The only thing I remember liking was all the melons and the large strawberry bed and non-citrus trees in the front yard. I wasn't upset and didn't understand the implications when we started having to parcel out the land and eventually sell even the small plot we had left with the house and garden, as the city encroached on us and large corporate farms were to difficult to compete against.
I remember the first garden I ever had on my own. I was 20 and my roommate suggested we start a small garden in our new house. He was shocked to come home later that day to the whole yard tilled up and me dividing up rows and marking off paths. I was even more shocked to realize I was loving it.
From that moment I have always had a garden or veggie plants of some kind. When I lived in apartments I grew tomatoes on the patio and would hang baskets of flowers or strawberries from the trees by my unit. Now I live in a condo and have to have a raised bed and large pots, as I am not allowed to dig. Stupid HOA! It is a true blessing to have a garden of any kind and I have enjoyed learning ( and continuing to learn) all the different methods and crops one can enjoy!
Okay to see some flowers? All photo's are from last year:
If you look beyond the snapdragons and such -- there are the beds of tomatoes and corn. I call this the "big veggie garden" but there is this flower corner.
Here is the "little veggie garden:"
Across a driveway at the little veggie garden is the "shady corner:"
Finish with flowers? The "dahlia garden:"
The big & little veggie gardens are in different locations. The shady corner is only "kind of" separate from the little veggie garden. The dahlia garden is on the other side of bushes from the little veggie garden. My backyard? I've only got room for the protected growing structures
. One of them is pulled down every summer and "magically" just goes back to being a couple of garden beds.
Let's see if this works: Here is my original post on this thread where I talk about all of this in 4' beds (link).
Steve
If you look beyond the snapdragons and such -- there are the beds of tomatoes and corn. I call this the "big veggie garden" but there is this flower corner.
Here is the "little veggie garden:"
Across a driveway at the little veggie garden is the "shady corner:"
Finish with flowers? The "dahlia garden:"
The big & little veggie gardens are in different locations. The shady corner is only "kind of" separate from the little veggie garden. The dahlia garden is on the other side of bushes from the little veggie garden. My backyard? I've only got room for the protected growing structures
. One of them is pulled down every summer and "magically" just goes back to being a couple of garden beds.Let's see if this works: Here is my original post on this thread where I talk about all of this in 4' beds (link).
Steve
Don't really know if I have a style. But I do prefer raised beds and trellises For anything I can trellis. 
I've always likes plants and being outside but up till a few years ago I never really wanted a garden per say. It probably started back when I still lived up in New York. I had come back from summer camp to find my mom had planted a bunch of tomato, cucumber and pepper plants in pot on our balcony. Unfortunately she planted them and just left them with out water or care...
Well let just say they weren't very happy till I came into the picture. I thought it was too sad to just leave them there so I took care of them and so we ended up with veggies lol
Though it wasn't until I moved back down south that I realized how much I loved to garden so I oh so casually mentioned it to my dad and he came home with plants and potting soil!! Guess he didn't realize that I'd end up covering his back yard with raised beds when he did that.
I've always likes plants and being outside but up till a few years ago I never really wanted a garden per say. It probably started back when I still lived up in New York. I had come back from summer camp to find my mom had planted a bunch of tomato, cucumber and pepper plants in pot on our balcony. Unfortunately she planted them and just left them with out water or care...
Well let just say they weren't very happy till I came into the picture. I thought it was too sad to just leave them there so I took care of them and so we ended up with veggies
lolThough it wasn't until I moved back down south that I realized how much I loved to garden so I oh so casually mentioned it to my dad and he came home with plants and potting soil!! Guess he didn't realize that I'd end up covering his back yard with raised beds when he did that.
Nice seeing the photos of your gardens. laknbay where is your boat for that dock, I would be out water skiing on smoth mornings if I lived on a lake. I keep telling my wife the one thing we don't have is a lake;LOL. I like the open field you call your hunting land, you could put in one big garden there, if you have water.
Digits; nice gardens, love your flowers Where are you in Idaho, near Bosie?
Some of the gardens are big, and some are small, but they are all nice, and I love seeing them.
Thanks for sharing all.
Digits; nice gardens, love your flowers Where are you in Idaho, near Bosie?
Some of the gardens are big, and some are small, but they are all nice, and I love seeing them.
Thanks for sharing all.