How many plants do you have? : )

[rootsy]

Small roadside stand and Saturday at the local market at the fairgrounds.. rest gets canned and vacuum bagged and put in the pantry or freezer.

Who said tractors.... I loooooove tractors... as long as they're RED

Will you explain about the vacuum bagging? I promise my tractor is red

I know about the problem of biodiesel in the cold, but thanks for the warning -- it's a good one. Becomes even more of a problem if you run straight vegetable oil. I bet we'd have less trouble with both those problems than you do, just because of temperatures!

vacuum bagging is just what it says... a polymer bag that you put your food into. The bag is placed into the vacuum pump / sealing machine and the air is evacuated and while still pulling a vacuum the bag is heat sealed.

Food Saver is the popular brand. I've had one for 5 years or so and will never put anything in a ziplock bag or freezer paper again. Vacuum bagging virtually eliminates freezer burn and keeps food fresh in an "almost" airless environment. I vacuum bag all of my meats, from venison to beef and chicken if it is going to be frozen and stored. It extends frozen food life from months to a year or more...

[hendi_alex]

I'm into succession planting, so a snapshot at any point in time does not really give the picture. Start the year out with harvesting over wintered crops like collards, kale, arugula, mixed greens. Make early plantings of sweet peas, early spring mesclan mix, radishes, spinach. Don't do a plant count but are planted in some modified version/hybrid of square foot/intensive planting technicque. So maybe 4 x 5 foot planting of sweet peas. 2 ft x 5 ft spinach. Ten linear feet of radishes. 3 x 5 foot mixed greens. Gives enough for my wife and me plus some export. Will usually do at least three succession plantings of radishes that extends harvest time for about two-three months. Also is good to take advantage of micro climates, so the last radish planting may get moved to a raised bed that is shaded half a day. Same is true for later plantings of arugula. Next comes a 4 x 5 foot block of sweet corn. Later, squash, cucumbers, cantalope, green beens, tomatoes, egg plant, peppers go in. Egg plants are usually limited to two ichiban plants in large containers. Sometimes plant as many as ten or twelve bell peppers but get mixed results from them. Planted none this year, but do have six jalapenas. Performed well last year. The three jalapenas that were overwintered have produced pretty well, but this years young plants are suffering. Usually plant about a dozen indeterminate tomatoes of various types. generally have two zuchini and two crook neck squash. Try to keep at least 3 cucumber vines in production at any given time. Plant a succession of those. I keep a nursery area of container plants including replacement tomato plants. Those plants are used to plant fresh plants as some get spent from production/disease. Also experiment with various container approaches with 3-6 tomato plants. Mid summer it is time to renew some plantings and start some late season pants: peas, more cukes, squash. Late August/early september it is time to pull out spent plants in some beds and plant fall winter things like collards, kale, turnips, winter salad mix, arugala. Last year plant six collard plants, a dozen kale plants, a 4 x5 bed of turnips. 3 x 5 bed of salad greens. Then the cycle starts again. In general I only plant enough to provide for the two of us, plus to include a margin of safety in case the crop doesn't produce as well as usual. We export lots of tomatoes, and most years export a lot of squash and cucumber. Will experiment with a few new things next year, edible soy beans will be one thing.

We have a blueberry hedge about 25 feet long and then have another dozen or so individual blueberry plants, including about six that are in containers. We have two producing pear trees. Also have a small strawberry bed of about 5 x 10 feet. Bought six pomegranates this past season. Two died. One is struggling, and three are doing very well. All three that are doing well were bought from a vendor who shipped in potted containers. The other three were ordered from a vendor who ships bare root. Two of the plants never broke domancy, the other started out healthy but is looking very poor now. So will probably have three plants going forward. Have two large pecan trees, but they don't produce. Nice paper shells, wish they did! Finally have about half a dozen rasberry plants but want to increase that to perhaps a dozen plants.

Finally, try to keep parsley and basil going year round. Usually about a half dozen parsley plants and 6-8 potted basil plants. Am somewhat challenged with cilantro but like to keep at least six clusters of plants growing. Have three pots of thyme, a small patch of oregeno, plant numerous planting of 12-24 dill plants but generally have very poor results. Have 12-14 fennel plants, for the butterfly larvae. Would like to expand the selection of herbs grown, but need to find a good use first.

[Jess]

Front garden is nearly all herbs which I use for food, medicine, household and beauty products. Back garden has many herbs in it too. I grow...

parsley, chives, fennel, dill, lavender (2 types), rosemary (white and blue), angelica, sweet cicely, lemon balm, lemon verbena, thyme, marjoram, oregano, lovage, hyssop, sage, alchemilla mollis, marsh mallow, bay, bee balm, catnip, Rosa gallica, santolina, winter savory, houseleeks, feverfew, valerian, violets. Mint----spearmint, applemint, chocolate peppermint and Moroccan mint.

I can't compete on the fruit or vege front as most that I grow and look after are not in my own garden! I do get to take lots home with me though.

In my garden are (or were this year)....tomatoes, alpine strawberries, rocket (arugula?) broad beans, artichokes, raddishes, sweetcorn, broad beans, rhubarb, raspberries, red/black currants, and blackberries.
I normally grow a bit more than that at home but this year I have just been too busy.