pete28
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Posts: 119
Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:24 am
Location: White Springs Florida

How many plants do you have? : )

hi folks its been a while. Well last time I posted it was about my many cucumber plants I kind of figured out a way to overcompensate for my overplanting. I have two plants next to each other all the way through the hill and I simply put the vines on the side of the hill and let them go. So far it seems to be working out wonderfully. The out of control bit is I went and put another 170 seeds in the ground. I had 148 that sprouted! In case I have not mentioned in my other post I have 5 acres but these cukes are in the small garden. I havent started any of the big gardens as of yet. The count now is as follows.

312 cucumber plants 84 with vines almost ready to pick

160 zucchini plants 40 sprouted so far. (need to plant more my wife makes zucchini bread that everyone wants to buy)

220 corn plants 28 with ears ready to pick the rest are small sprouts

19 tomatoes. I buy those as plants and did not have enough money cause I wanted more. (Next season will hopefully be 6-700 as my wife jars her own tomato sauce.

I lost 115 pea plants to aphids, could not get rid of them. SOOOO I decided to plant in a different spot and now I have 220 that just started sprouting : )

180 okra. I have never grown this before but it is huge here in the south and my buddy that owns a restaurant wants to purchasse them when it is ready!

400 green beans! roughly 80 are producing beans, another 60 are about 6 inches tall. Then I have 80 sprouts and another 180 seeds went into the ground yesterday.

80 peanuts. I have never grown these so I planted 80 and got 62 sprouts that are close to flowering. My wife wants to make and jar peanut butter.

60 brocolli. these are not going all that well. I have 3 viable plants that are ready to produce. I am not sure what is wrong maybe it is too hot. I put in a few more yesterday to see if a different spot might work.

240 carrots. This is including what Iput in yesterday. I have about 60 that should be pickable this weekend and the rest are still seeds

This is just my first year in Florida so next year will be much much bigger! I will probably start on the fruit and nut trees next year along with the blueberry bushes and of course a lot more vegetable. MY goal within the next 3 years is to plant 1000 of each vegetable I plan to grow and have that be done every year. I will stagger planting so that I have stuff available pretty mcuh year round until my wife learns a bit more about canning.

So what do you all have? Am I sick and demented or should I just plant more :lol:

Cuke
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Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 9:19 pm
Location: Midwest, US

Wow,my garden is nothing compared to your huge garden.My garden is only 10x8 since we live in the city.

I have roughly 20 cucumber plants,there's 5 weeds that look exactly like my cuke plants so I'm waiting for my cukes to vine before I start pulling them.I also have 6 tomato plants which are very green and healthy right now.They're blossoming and so far no bumble bees have been checking them out so I'm worried about that.They've had their blossoms for about a little over a week now,but I think the weather is keeping the bees away.I also have a forest of dill in my garden which I need to start making stuff out of considering it's blocking some parts of my tomato plants from sun which might also cause the bees to stay away from them.

Once the cukes start producing,my mom and I are going to can a lot to make pickles which is why we grow the dill.Homemade pickles are so much better than store bought.

If you have the time and money to plant more,than go ahead.You could literally live off your garden.

pete28
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Posts: 119
Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:24 am
Location: White Springs Florida

That is funny you should say that. We are trying to pursue being 85% self sufficient meaning that we only have to buy 15% of all our stuff at the grocery store. I think I got the veggie aspect covered so next year will be the fruit and nut. Next after that will be chickens and goats, then I am not sure.

Cuke
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Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 9:19 pm
Location: Midwest, US

That would be amazing if you could be 85% sufficient.I'm sure once you will be,you won't miss shopping at the grocery store for your veggies and fruits.I love only having to buy pickles for family get-togethers to save the pickles for myself :lol:

And once you start raising your own livestock,you'll have manure covered.

cheshirekat
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Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 11:13 pm
Location: Denver, CO (zone 5)

I'm not counting. I tried that and kept losing track. I know potatoes are over there, three different kind of sweet potatoes there, a lot of peppers, quite a few tomatoes, some carrots about to be picked, beets ready to eat, 5 spaghetti squash, a few watermelon, maybe four or five unpicked icicle radish left (first time and much better/sweeter than red), strawberries everywhere, onions everywhere, two horseradish, four or five garlic, lot of brussels sprouts, and that's all I can think of. All in containers.

Already planted most of the fruit since it takes a while for the fruit to get going unlike annual vegetables you can seed and eat a few weeks later. Should have strawberries so sweet this year and several different varieties. Along with blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, mulberries, cherries and others I can plant without having an orchard. Many herbs.

Wish I could be more self-sufficient but we can't have chickens or anything in the city. Would like to have rabbits but the hubby said no way. So I hope to grow most of our veggies and all our fruit. If I'm smart enough, I will find affordable ways to extend the gardening season and freeze or can as much as possible for the winter months.

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Quietly Awesome
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Location: Indiana

I have NO idea how many of anything I have planted so far. I have 4 acres. Tuesday, I had to work at my side job and DH was in charge here at home. I had set aside the tomatoes that I wanted planted, (twice of what I had last year) but I think they ended up planting 4 times as much. :shock:

honey
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Wow suddenly I feel so inadequate! My garden is tiny tiny compared to you guys. I think that in my head my garden is HUGE though. I have 5 pepper plants (green, purple, red and some jalapeno), 10 tomato plants (all different kinds) three eggplants, two yellow squash, 5 cucumber plants, 4 zucchini, and a big bush of rosemary. I also made a big planter outside my kitchen door of chives (which just come back every year) parsely and thyme. Like I've posted before, my land used to be a strawberry farm 30 years ago so my soil is pretty good. I usually just plant things and they go nuts. This year, not so much :lol: I"m keeping my fingers crossed though.

I wasn't going to grow string beans this year because usually we end up with so many that I have my kids bring bagfulls to the neighbors. Anyway, I figured I'd save the space for something else but I had no idea what else to plant so I iplanted string beans again.

to me there is nothing like the flavor of homegrown. I love the cucumbers. No wax or anything on them like in the supermarket.

I grew up in the city so I have NO training whatsoever with gardening. I guess I've just been lucky - but like I said, this year - things aren't looking so great ---- yet.

cheshirekat
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Location: Denver, CO (zone 5)

Each gardener grows what they want/need and have the time and resources for, so no need for you to feel your garden is inadequate for you.

Last year, while I was working hard on the front yard, the hubby took care of two little tomato plants and one pepper plant. They were the most pitiful we have had in years. Growing in pots takes frequent watering, a concept I couldn't get him to understand. He wanted to drown them once a week. The veggies were very inadequate last year and the squirrels loved taking bites out of the few tomatoes we had.

Now that I'm not fighting quite so many weeds and am a bit more organized this year, I'm able to concentrate more on the herbs and veggies. I'm still not sure we have an adequate veggie garden, but I only have so much energy and I work away from home so not as much time as I'd like either.

Next year, I plan to grow more and I believe we will finally be harvesting a decent amount of the fruits I planted. It has taken five years to get to this point. I added just a plant or tow at a time at first and the weeds nearly won. We got rid of ALL the grass so we can have more edibles and have plants that welcome bees, butterflies and birds.

I know a lot of gardeners from different forums and my garden may be quite small in comparison, but it is certainly not inadequate. I wouldn't know what to do with 50 tomato plants unless I quit my job! I don't have any eggplants but next year I might since the hubby wants some. I don't care for those I've tasted. I'd also like okra and beans.

The nice thing about vegetable gardening is that you can always consider it a work in progress. I garden all year long - sometimes the planning and research requires time and energy. I didn't even know what the plant growing my brussels sprouts would look like until my winter research.

If your land isn't producing as well this year, you may want to look at different amendments for your growing season. I'm sold on the fish emulsion, but it stinks when first applied. I've learned a lot because of useful forums and articles and you are ahead by reading and participating. I have friends and neighbors that aren't growing anything with prices as high as they are. I saw the high prices coming a few years ago and it scared me into action faster than I planned.

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JennyC
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None of us should feel inadequate -- we grow what we can and what we love. I hope to be closer to where Pete is in a few years, but I don't begrudge the time and the learning to get there, and those who don't want to or can't go there at all shouldn't worry but value where they are.

Pete, are you gardening full time? This year is my very first garden, so I've started small. I work from home, which is nice, but it isn't at all the same as working the farm full time -- I find myself very frustrated when I'm on a deadline and can't get out there to do what I'd like to.

We have pecans, peaches, figs, walnuts, some sort of apple, acres of blackberries, some sort of grapes which are probably wild muskadines, and more edible wild things than I would have imagined, but all that came with the farm (we moved here at the very end of last summer). So, I'll gather and preserve a lot of that, but I can't say I'm gardening it. More like trying not to get in the way.

We have a fenced garden plot of a couple of acres, but I've only planted six intensive beds there, 40 square feet each, plus two "patches" of potatoes in old tires. I've had some successes and some complete failures in the garden so far.

Bed #1 has radishes (white, crimson giant, sparkler), which have bolted-- we're gradually eating the greens; otherwise I'm leaving them for bug traps. There are two rows of beets (crossbed rows, about 15 plants total). It's gotten too hot for them to do much, so I'm contemplating eating beet greens, too. I have four rows of Spanish sweet onions and two of white onions -- planted outdoors from seed, but they have come up, so we'll see what happens in the fall. The ends of all my beds are marigolds, and I planted nasturtiums among them a couple of weeks ago when I finally got some seed.

Bed # 2 is red and white potatoes interplanted with bush lima beans; the potatoes have about shaded out the limas, but that's okay as I just wanted them to help the potatoes; my husband won't eat them. I have about 12 potatoes plants there, about the same number of limas. Over by the fence are my old tire potatoes, about 6-8 plants each with red potatoes in one tire stack and white in the other.


Bed #3 is my problem child. We let the subsoil mix into the surface soil when we double dug it (by the way, "we," as applied to heavy groundbreaking activites, generally means "my wonderful husband"). Also, it's closest to the big black walnut by the garden fence (though most of my garden is surrounded by black walnuts). I worked in coffee grounds, but no manure. I planted it in jalapeno and bell peppers (from seed), interplanted with some onions just as companions and some radish bug traps. A few of the plants have come up now, but most of those appeared shortly after I gave up on the peppers and replanted part of the bed with nine Rutgers tomato plants. No telling what baby peppers I killed. I'm going to maure this bed in the fall and plant soybeans as a cover crop if I can get the seeds, clover if I can't (I'll cover crop all the beds except the potatoes, which will probably be storing potatoes).

Bed #4 has marigold interplanted with catnip along the ends. Then there are six Roma tomato plants (planted outdoors from seed, and they're very happy now), then 4 rows of crowder peas (Mississippi Silver) -- that's about 16 plants). The end of the bed I planted with watermelon (6 plants in two rows), intending to let them sprawl out of the bed, but it looks like they may not come up.

Bed #5 is a complete success -- squash. I have 9 yellow crookneck squash plants, 2 pumpkins, 4 cucumber, and 5 zucchini. This bed has also been my most successful experiment with radushes as insect trap plants -- I just keep replanting them along the edges to lure the bugs, and pull'em when the leaves are eaten down to nubs.

Bed #6 is acually two long narrow beds with a footpath down the middle -- more like traditional rows, I guess, though I still planted intensively. On one side I have two long rows of more Mississippi Silver peas -- about 30 plants, I guess. The other side has 6 cowbell peppers from bought flats, two "clumps" of bell peppers from seeds I saved out of store-bought peppers and started in potting soil -- I need to thin these -- and 8 sweet potato plants from bought flats (originally; one plant died shortly after transplanting, though I think it was dying in the flat). The pepper and sweet potato bed we double dug and mixed a wheelbarrow of aged manure into the subsoil and another into the topsoil. The pea bed my husband literally just broke the ground open with a pick, then I raked in one 5-gallon bucket of manure. Those peas are doing great -- I think it's virtually impossible to kill crowder peas around here, and Mississippi Silvers are particularly well-suited to the climate here. I wanted to experiment with a method that involved less work, and so far, it's been great. (Can you tell this was the last bed and we were tired?)

I'll replant some of the beds after harvest for a fall crop of lettuces and the like. I'm going to put in collard greens about the first of July, but I think I'll need another bed.

Mommagreen
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I have a small garden, I wish it was larger like yours! I really want to start my own commercial veggie farm someday.

I am sure I could of done larger but I was trying to use space wisely and given that in the middle of the summer I am going to be nice and round from this pregnancy, I didn't want to push my luck!

eshenry
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Location: Tennessee

I have 39 tomato plants of many varieties, 14 various bell pepper plants, 2 cayenne peppers, 10 cucumbers, a patch of mustard greens, butter crunch lettuce that is about done, a patch of dill (about 12 plants) 14 plants of basil, a big potted rosemary and another of sage, a couple pots of oregano and a couple of thyme.

I over winter the pots of herbs.

The tomato types are: Cherokee purple, German pink, Gold medal, Black Krim, Mr Stripey, Brandywine (lots), Early Girl, Big Boy,& Better Bush.

pete28
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Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:24 am
Location: White Springs Florida

Those are all awesome. I hope I did not offend anyone by mentioning my plants or garden size. I was definitely not trying to. Many have said it right, people will grow what they need or can.

I WISH I was farming full time unfortunately I have do not have a suitable avenue yet to distribute the produce I grow and I would have to have some more plants to do so. I usually put in about 3-4 hours a day early in the morning in the garden weeding and such.

the majority of veggies will be stored for later use but I am hoping to get in contact with some of the local restaurants and what not to seel them my produce to make a little extra money.

I think one of the reaons I went kind of big is because I did not have room to garden for a long time and truly missed. Now I feel kind of obligated to plant as much as possible as to me it would be a waste not to utilize the property I have.

I am also hoping once Iget fruits established to have a pick your own kind of thing on my property as I think that would be great for families on the weekends and stuff..

honey
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Goodness! I wasn't offended. Ha - in my mind my garden is huge :) ! I used to have a plot next to my house, it was about 10 feet wide by about 20 feet long. Problem was, last year my husband had our yard redone and now there is a hottub where my garden used to be. I moved to a plot next to my shed that is smaller, but gets a lot more sun. I love gardening. I love going out in the morning with my cup of coffee and sitting there looking at my plants - I swear I can see them grow! I still want to plant some more stuff there, I don't have much room though.

Happy Gardening all!

pete28
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Location: White Springs Florida

Aww phew! I am glad I didnt upset or offend you honey. I just wanted to share my garden with everyone asI was so excited! eventually I plan on having roughly 4 acres of my 5.2 planted. Luckily my wife and daughters love the idea as they help me out quite a bit. I do all the planting with my girls and the my wife is responsible for picking em all and she needs to learn how to do canning so we cna have stuff year round.

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JennyC
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Pete, I don't think anyone was offended -- I surely wasn't. Maybe a little intimidated! :) I can't imagine the work you went to at first -- did you break ground with a tractor or plow? We have our tractor up here now (no plow attachment, though), so larger areas have become an option for next year. I kind of like the hand digging, though.

I can definitely see that it takes you three hours a day.

On preserving: I just posted a link to the University of Georgia last night -- they have the National Center for Home Food Preservation and there's a free online course on home canning on their website: https://www.uga.edu/nchfp/

Is freezing an option for you guys? I know it uses more resources than canning, but I'm doing it this year, at least. I'd hoped to reserve more of my deep freezer for wild game** in the future, but I don't have any now, so I have lots of empty space to fill.

**[Hunting bothers me enough, personally, that if I find protein alternatives, I'll be happier, but I also imagine I'd be less bothered overall if more hunters ate what they killed.]

cheshirekat
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Pete, I was not offended. I am happy for you. I think I'm nearly exhausted thinking about the amount of work you put into your garden. I don't complain much about the work I have to do, but it is nice when I have days I can sit for a while longer. Or get to bed at a decent hour. I just keep reminding myself how bad the store produce tastes. And the prices keep going up for tasteless junk. How absurd!

I'm happy for anyone who is able to have a garden. For those who aren't, I hope to share some of the rewards of my garden with them.

Have you looked into a local CSA, Pete? Look up Community Supported Agriculture. I don't know if there are variations for different locations, but it looks like something good to look into. I'd like to grow more tomatoes and peppers next year and trade some for corn, beans, and asparagus. That way I can concentrate my space on the crops I can do well and trade for those I don't have the space for. I could never grow corn, we tried one year and the squirrels ate every single bit. Corn takes up too much garden space here in the city when you don't get to enjoy a single kernel.

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Reptilicus
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Pete that the mother of all gardens, pal. I thought I was ridiculous for having 35 tomato plants. :lol:

I am in a learning period. I have not been gardening too long. I just opened up a lot more area to add to the garden. I've also been reading up so that next year I'll be able to kick it all up a notch.

I notice someone posted about canning. Here's a good site:
https://canningusa.com/

petalfuzz
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In about 100 sq ft in 4 plots, I have:

12 tomato plants of 2 varieties
16 pepper plants of 3 varieties
lettuce patch with mustard, mesculan, and leaf lettuce mixture
5 watermelon vines

plus I just started rosemary seed (cross fingers) and sunflowers.

pete28
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Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:24 am
Location: White Springs Florida

Hi Jenny wel I wish I had a tractor but cant afford one at the moment. Everything was done by hand. I cut down all the pine trees where I wanted the garden then I raked all the loose material into a big pile and burned it. Next I used my cousins tiller to till the ground. I handraked all the raised rows and planted all the seeds by hand. I then had to run all the pipe for the irrigation system which is causing me some issues at the moment.

Freexing woud be a definite option for us as we have a lot of freezer space. Thank you so much for that link I will have my wife sign up for the course.

So far all of the work is done by hand. I hope in the next year or two to have a tractor.

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rootsy
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Location: Litchfield, Michigan

No idea how many of some plants I have in... but for the garden there's oh..

Dozen Broccoli plants

50 pepper plants of various colors and varieties

50 tomato plants of various colors and varieties

75 cantaloupe plants

25 Honeydew plants

25 watermelon plants

25 zuccini

20 winter squash

20 cukes

couple of rows of carrot... no clue how many seeds went in the ground

same for the lettuce as for the carrot.

2 lbs of sugar snap peas

1 lb of stringless beans

600 pumpkins in the ground

1/2 acre of sweet corn thus far which equates to around 9000 seeds since I am planting at an 18000 seed / acre population.

pete28
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Location: White Springs Florida

Holy cow rootsy! Hopefully I will be about that big by next season. DO you sell the corn or use any for feed or anyhting like that? That is a great garden. I wll be doing a bunch of fruit stuff enxt year when I have some room cleared out.

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JennyC
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Rootsy, that sounds absolutely fabulous!

Pete, we bought our tractor used several years ago and have never been sorry. Often you can get them with the attachments you need if you shop around. Ours is a smaller Massey-Ferguson with a bushhog and a grader (at the time, we needed it for maintaining the dirt road to our old house rather than for plowing). I think we'll be looking for a plow attachment for it next. When you're ready, start looking in late fall, after people are either done with them or have realized they didn't use them again this year -- prices go up in spring as demand does.

We got ours with the attachments and a 16-foot flatbed trailer to haul it (which we've probably used more than the tractor) for $6000, I think in 2001. You can get a good used tractor alone for 3-6K, depending on what you're looking for. If you shop around and watch the smaller papers for classified ads from individuals, you can probably do better than that. We travelled some distance for ours (up to this neck of the woods, in fact, when we were living on the other side of the state, near UGA) because the prices were so much lower in this economically depressed area. For a major purchase like that, it was worth the gas and the time.

[Edited to add that if you have the space to keep a mule, you can get a mule and plow for less than a tractor -- though the plow will take some searching! -- and that the cool thing about diesel tractors is that you can convert to biodiesel.]

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rootsy
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Location: Litchfield, Michigan

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 :D

BTW, if you are looking for implements spend your time at farm auctions...

Be careful running high ratio bio-diesel (B50, B99) in cold weather. Even with anti-gel additives the stuff will string coming out of the injector.

produce pete
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Cuke wrote:Wow,my garden is nothing compared to your huge garden.My garden is only 10x8 since we live in the city.

I have roughly 20 cucumber plants,there's 5 weeds that look exactly like my cuke plants so I'm waiting for my cukes to vine before I start pulling them.I also have 6 tomato plants which are very green and healthy right now.They're blossoming and so far no bumble bees have been checking them out so I'm worried about that.They've had their blossoms for about a little over a week now,but I think the weather is keeping the bees away.I also have a forest of dill in my garden which I need to start making stuff out of considering it's blocking some parts of my tomato plants from sun which might also cause the bees to stay away from them.

Once the cukes start producing,my mom and I are going to can a lot to make pickles which is why we grow the dill.Homemade pickles are so much better than store bought.

If you have the time and money to plant more,than go ahead.You could literally live off your garden.

pete28
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Location: White Springs Florida

Thanks everyone. Rootsy that is a good idea about the roadside stand and I will check the farm auctions to see what I can find. As far as moles and gophers my cats dispose of all of them. But if not you can get the spike traps at any home and garden place that will take care of them instantly.

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rootsy
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I am not sure where White Springs is at in Florida but every spring the Florida Flywheelers have a HUGE show and consignment auction. I am sure there are no shortage of estate and agricultural auctions in your area... sure aren't up here.

Size the tractor to the work you need and want to do with it. Look at what you have for dealers near by so you can figure out what color is going to be easily serviceable. Figure out "how" you want to farm and purchase implements that fit your way of doing things and that your tractor can handle.

rigardengal
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Location: Rhode Island

I am enjoying reading about everyone's garden and it goes to show how many different gardeners there are out there, from farmer's market to garden salads for the summer.

My Rhode Island garden is a small garden, perfect for me right now, since it's the first garden I've ever had. Each summer I would plant in containers 1 cherry tomato, 2 cucumbers, herbs, and an occasional experiment or two with beans or broccoli. I loved my green, fruitful patio, but then this year I wanted to move on.

With my husbands help, I have a 4' X 16' raised bed, divided into four sections. Section 1: caged cucumbers, caged sugar snap peas, 2 bell peppers, 1 hot cherry pepper and green onions. Section 2: 1 tomato, 4 red onions, 2 eggplant. Section 3: 4 broccoli, 2 cauliflower. Section 4: 2 zucchini. Along the back of section 2 and 3 are 16 pole beans and scattered about are varrying lettuce and celery.

Maybe some plants may get crowded. If so, I'll know better next time. I think we'll have enough goodies through the summer, and if all works out well, I may go for more next year!

Good luck to all gardeners this season!

praying mantis
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Location: Northern California

Wow.
What I have is right at my limit. This is my first gardening experience (Translation: expensive hobby). I have 6 beds and a few pots.
11 tomato plants
16 pepper plants
4 eggplants
4 potato plants
24 ish corn + 18 of a later crop
7 peas
3 bush beans
3 summer squash
4 winter squash
2 pumpkins
1 honeydew
3 melons
3 watermelons
4 cucumber
+ companion planting with herbs and flowers

Only the anaheim, jalapeno, and corn are multiples. I enjoy seeing the differences between plants, flowers, and fruit. I might have a difficult time with the inevitable casualties but I will enjoy the diversity.

Sczi
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Location: Tampa

I'm sure I'm bring up the bottom end in square footage, but I'm having fun and eating my own food, so that's 2 for 2 right? I have a 4'x8' plot, a 1'x16' plot along a fence, 4 5-gallon buckets and a few more buckets and pots in various stages of getting started..

Right now I have producing:
5 cucumbers
2 okra
9 green bell peppers
4 roma tomatoes
too many basils in one pot

Stuff that already came in:
9 broccoli.. mmm tasty.. and gone
20-ish radishes that my wife eats whole

Honorable mention:
4 zucchini that I got mad and pulled.. pretty sure I was doing it wrong

Stuff sprouting now:
More basil to give to my Mom
35 sweet bell peppers in a tray.. I think 5 didn't sprout.. now I'm not sure what to do with them
20 "long, hot" peppers.. not sure what they are.. boss at work gave me seeds
1 habanero.. planted a bunch but only one sprouted.. I think maybe that's a good thing, though.
a new crop of radishes
6 okra
2 yellow crookneck squash
1 new zucchini that I will try to treat right this time
Marigolds.. planted 6, 2 sprouted.. maybe that will change.. buddy at work said it might help with bugs

Seeds not sprouted:
chives, oregano, cilantro, and another zucchini in a bucket

I'm calling this practice season for now.. I'm taking more than my fair share of mulligans with so far =] I'd say my greatest success is my cucumbers aside from the bug problem. Next year will be smooth sailing right?

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applestar
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Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Jenny - you said something about planting soybeans if you can get the seed... I just wanted to mention that just for kicks, I planted dried soybeans I had in the fridge since last fall (purchased in the bulk section of a health food grocery - Whole Foods) 2 in each hole since I had no idea if they were viable --- and they ALL sprouted! :shock:

I'm planting all my kids' favorite veggies in the garden and my kids love edamame (fresh green soybeans). I was thinking that the round yellow dried soybeans look nothing like the green edamame, but when the seed leaves came up and turned green in the sun, they sure looked like edamame (even my 6 yr old recognized it :wink:) So maybe these will work out.

pete28
Senior Member
Posts: 119
Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:24 am
Location: White Springs Florida

Those are all awesome! It certainly does not matter what the size of the garden is just how much enjoyment the individual gets out of it. Everyones gardens sound so wonderful. Too bad we cant all go on some field trips to visit other peoples gardens to see what they are like.

oceanwaves1
Full Member
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 11:43 am
Location: New Hampshire

Hi everyone,
This is a great site, and being a first time gardner I'm hopeful I'll learn a lot. I have a small garden with cherry tomatoes (6), two types of reg. tomatoes (10), pickling cukes (5), peppers, red & yellow (6), yellow squash (4) and zucchinni (3). It's fenced with marigolds all around. I've done nothing for pest control at all, but reading all the topics, I guess I should do something??? LOL....ahhh...so new at this! Good to be here, try not to laugh at me too, too much...(a little is okay, I'm laughing myself...) :lol:

TheLorax
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Posts: 1416
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:40 pm
Location: US

I'm so happy for everyone! You guys are all blowing me out of the water. When I grow up I want to be like all of you.

Here's what I've got-

15 assorted tomato plants, will do less next year
10 strawberry plants all in one pot
2 cucumbers
3 bell peppers
2 rhubarb plants
1 planter of mesclun
1 asparagus patch

If all goes well; I'd like to try chard, spicy bush basil, eggplant, spaghetti squash, acorn squash, beans and a few others next year while cutting back on tomatoes.

In the nut department I have-
walnuts
hazelnuts
pecans
chesnuts

In the fruit department I have-
pawpaws
persimmons
apples
peaches
pears
apricots
(eliminating all prunus spp.)

editing to add chestnuts to the above nut list.
Last edited by TheLorax on Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

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JennyC
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Posts: 310
Joined: Thu May 15, 2008 2:25 pm
Location: NW Georgia

[quote="applestar"]Jenny - you said something about planting soybeans if you can get the seed... I just wanted to mention that just for kicks, I planted dried soybeans I had in the fridge since last fall (purchased in the bulk section of a health food grocery - Whole Foods) 2 in each hole since I had no idea if they were viable --- and they ALL sprouted! :shock:
[quote]

Ooh, thanks! That's a good idea. My local extension agent is asking some of the farmers she works with for "leftovers" for me, because the feed & seed carries soybeans, but only in 50 pound bags and bigger. If I get to a health food store, which I do hope to this summer, I'll get myself some "backup beans." If the extension agent comes through, I can always eat 'em!

fabulousmindy
Full Member
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:44 am
Location: Columbus, OH *Go Bucks*

Hi everyone-

My garden is suburban so it is only 6 X 18 in the back yard. This is the third year, we till and amend every spring. I have

10 green bean bushes, planted burpee heavyweight 2 and had TERRIBLE germination rates, planted a second batch to compensate, still no beans yet

3 types of basil, which the japanese beetles really enjoyed, so I had to get out the seven last week

2 fairy tale eggplants, mini striped variety- these will probably not produce due to my ambitious need to over plant my small ptach they have been overshadowed by zuchinni... :(

3 zuchinni - I am so happy these are doing sooo well. Last year I had awful powdery mildew and no zuchinni

one cubanelle pepper-experiment and I lost the tag so I don't know what size or color to harvest at

18 (or just say way too many) tomatoes. These are struggling, may be it is the spacing. We have had really odd weather this year. Unusually cool and rainy. My tomatoes have a ton of foliage and blossoms (which are not falling off) but very few green tomatoes. I usually have a lot of ripening going on now.

any how the tomatoes varieties are

6 specialty tomatoes purchased as plants (tangerine mama, razzle dazzle, italian ice, golden mama and honey bunch)

1 Mr. America plant I found at Lowes

the rest I did from seeds (my first attempt)

5 beefsteak
3 better boy
2 yellow pear
1 sugar lump cherry

fabulousmindy
Full Member
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:44 am
Location: Columbus, OH *Go Bucks*

oops forgot the asparagus patch, combination of seeds started in 06 and roots...

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hendi_alex
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Posts: 3604
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:58 am
Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina

Hi honey,

Now that sounds a little intimate doesn't it! I'm like you with a fairly small garden. I've got ten or less tomato plants for fresh tomatoes, and probably have given aways at least 50 pounds. So I'm wondering what the heck someone does with more than a dozen or so plants. Same is true with other things. I plant two egg plants, usually two yellow squash and two zuchinni and one again give away dozens of fruit over the course of the season. This year I did do a separate plot of about 10 roma tomato plants. They are strictly for drying.

I guess like everything else it gets down to one's goals. For my wife and I, we like to sit down to a summer meal and say that we grew the tomato, the cucumber, the cantalope, the greens, etc. and usually only the starch and the bread came from the market or from ingredients at the market. In the past we froze peas, corn, okra, greens, etc. but no longer do that. But absolutely can't imagine the use for over a couple dozen tomato plants and 6-12 cucumber vines for example. Is nice to hear folks with the big gardens being so self sufficient however. Sounds to me like some ought to consider setting up a road side stand, or maybe marketing organic produce to local restaurants.

fabulousmindy
Full Member
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:44 am
Location: Columbus, OH *Go Bucks*

We can tomoatoes, so I can cook with home grown over the winter. They are so much richer for pasta sauce and chili. I get loads of compliments! :D

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JennyC
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Posts: 310
Joined: Thu May 15, 2008 2:25 pm
Location: NW Georgia

rootsy wrote: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 :D
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!

mbaker410
Senior Member
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 3:10 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

I have a small garden in my small yard! It measures about 18' x 8'6" and is new this year.

I grew everything from seed and not everything made it due to my error in over seeding and crowded seedlings. However this is what I have in the garden now:

- 6 Big Boy Tomatoes
- 3 Cherry Tomatoes
- 1 Black Prince heirloom Tomatoe
- 4 Green Peppers
- 1 Jalepeno Pepper
- 5 Broccoli plants
- 3 Cucumber Plants

Depending on the harvest from this year I may do less tomato plants, different pepper plants (hot and sweet) and add space between plants for cover crops later in the season.

Mike



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