What do you take to your veggie garden?

[applestar]

I'm completely obsessed right now and am going out to check on my veggies everyday, usually 2 or 3 times! There're always weeds to pluck out and seedlings to thin. The little thinnings are great in salads and sandwiches so I save them. In the beginning, a handful was all I got, but now there are too much to hold in one hand....

In the morning, I'm usually out there with my first mug of tea or coffee, so I've been drinking up, then putting my gleanings in the mug. Right now, I can come back to make breakfast with a bit of greens for the omelet and some wild strawberries for the cereal in the mug.

I can see though, that as the veggie garden matures, I'm going to need more than a mug. So what do you usually take with you to your garden?

Oh. I've also started leaving a pair of gardening gloves stuck on top of some tomato stakes -- a handy way to dry them, maybe acts like little "scarecrows", and conveniently available when I need to get in the dirt. The other day, my 6 year old rearranged a glove so that it was *almost* pointing *the finger* -- I was astonished because I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what that means. As it turned out, before I said anything, she said to herself, "Oh that doesn't work... " and changed it to make the glove hold a little spray of roses.

[pete28]

That is too funny about the gloves. I actually leave several plastic shopping bags inside a closed gallon sized ziploc freezer bag outside. They don't get wet or anyhting and it makes harvesting a snap.

[elementfiftyfour]

I take a pasta colander out to pick my veggies. It is plenty enough to hold the beans and a few tomatoes I pick each day. But when I get the Zucchini or Cantaloupe, which I got my first two already, I just cary them in my hand.

[Reptilicus]

I usually take a beer.


I haven't pulled weeds in my garden.

I been cutting the grass with shears as I'm afraid I'll rip out my veggies with the grass it is so thick.

I gotta get the newspaper and some pine straw on the weeds to kill'em.

[pete28]

That was awesome! No wonder why there is so many weeds you go out and drink, but at least the veggies are good company. The don't sass you or tell you to stop drinking

[cheshirekat]

Most of the time I go out to my veggie garden with some trash for the compost. Usually a bag of store bought stuff that is no longer recognizable, moldy bread, coffee grounds, corn shucks from store corn, etc.

In the mornings I pick herbs for tea. I take a 1 pint glass container and an infuser. The bigger herbs go in the glass jar. The littler herbs are easier to rinse in the infuser.

In the evening, I usually pick a lot of lettuce as that is about all I've harvested of the veggies so far. I have a couple large colanders for them. If I pick other stuff, I make a separate trip because I don't like my lettuce flattened or bruised.

My gloves are all over the place since I have two separate fenced areas in the back and more goodies to harvest in the front. This time of year, when I go out front, I take the garden hose with me so I can visit the strawberry patch and eat right away. Then I tell the hubby there weren't any ripe strawberries yet. This year, since the berries are smaller but sooooooo sweet, I'm sure to repeat "Darn squirrels ate those nearly ripe strawberries I was watching!" to the hubby over and over while hoping there is no incriminating evidence on my lips.

[petalfuzz]

If I'm picking lettuce, I bring out a plastic colander and scissors. If I'm weeding then I bring a 3-gal bucket. Any beer I bring out would be for the slugs...

[Daphne]

I take the coffee grounds and banana peels out the the garden each week. Egg shells too, if I have any.

Lately, I've been taking my camera and my bug repellent. The mosquitos are vicious out there!

Most early mornings before I leave for work, you will find me meandering around the garden with a cup of coffee.

[JennyC]

I take a colander to hold greens (I seem to be growing a half-bed of yellow sorrel where I thought I'd gorw onions, and that needs a colander). The squash is really starting to com in, though, and I'm going to need more than a colander.

I take my sunhat, always. I don't use gloves, but the hat is essential. I need bug repellent also, but I generally rub on some garlic juice -- nontoxic and it works better than Burt's Bees repellent, which is what I used to use. I have a little sonic mosquito repeller that's supposed to drive 'em away with a noise humans can't hear, but I've begun to suspect I can't hear it because it isn't doing anything. The mosquitoes aren't impressed for sure.

Other than that, what I take is task-dependant. Sometimes a bucket or wheelbarrow for hauling manure -- which means a shovel, too. I don't take a hoe as often as I should, which is why I have sorrel instead of onions. After a rain I always hand-weed, but I don't use a bucket for weeds, just throw them in the rows that are mulched with cardboard to bake in the sun. I need to finish mulching all the rows this way -- it works great.

[Mommagreen]

Just myself. I go out in the morning and I meditate and then I thin or weed.

My garden is going good. Nothing yet to harvest. I don't wear gloves, maybe I am old school like that.

[mr_tumnas]

Nothing. That's the problem. I have big wicker basket to carry what I harvest back to the house, but every morning without fail I forget it. The garden's a little walk from the house but every single morning I have to come back to get the stupid basket.

[doccat5]

Normally my little cart and a 5 gal bucket along with shears and gloves.


Just pick what's there, I have a bad back so I can sit on the cart to pick without stooping, Right now, not much to look at, but their coming....

[cherlynn]

The first thing that I take with me is a Great Big Smile! I do enjoy my morning coffee while I'm out marveling at the early growth! I'm a bit of a novice and I am enjoying this stage. Nothing to harvest yet, but I did thin the lettuce and the radishes.

[cheshirekat]

The growth stage is what I smile about also. By the time I'm eating from the growth, I've got a big GRIN with me.

Yesterday I put down some newspaper and straw for my watermelon and spaghetti squash. The squash was already clinging - to weeds and tall grass. I think they will like the thick layer of straw around their containers much better.

The watermelon had a half dozen little melons on it's vines already. Some smaller melon plants haven't vined yet.

Then after feeling so good about making them comfortable, I put some straw around for my tomatoes and peppers to keep the soil from getting so hot and dried. Sometimes I sing silly songs about eating from my garden. Last night they all got a pep talk about their purpose in life - to grow and produce. I think they like it when I bring a song or conversation with me.

[applestar]

I LOVE IT!
I talk to my veggies and flowers too... and the birds and the bunnies and the butterflies .... Once, I having an earnest conversation with my garden as the sun was just clearing the morning mist and, all of a sudden, one of the neighbors said from the other side of the fence "Eh? What was that?"

[beachbum757]

You all are such a hoot!!! I was laughing out loud.
I think we all agree we take different things, different strokes for different folks.
I have a garden cart with some gloves and some rope pieces in a little compartment in it. I have planters and buckets everywhere. They catch rainwater and well water for in between waterings of new seeds. seedlings.
Yep, sometimes I take coffee, sometimes in the evening a beer.
If things need pruned I take pruners. I have a medium and a huge basket for harvesting but so far have only harvested about 8 snaps and 1 tomato.
Thanks for all the smiles
My boyfriend likes to take a beer out too. He never was excited about yard work or gardening but he said my excitement has rubbed off on him.
He is happy to see all the tomatoes and found out his friend at work was into gardening. He gave us some gourd seeds and we have seedlings now!
His favorite part of gardening is still the hammock:)
My tomatoes have over a hundred fruit on them, I planted 9 different plants. Today I took qtips out to try pollinating my Brandywine, she is being stubborn, as well as my yellow and zucchini squash.
I had one tiny bell pepper something ate so those plants are getting big and flowering we shall see.
I had one lettuce harvest and saw something had been nibbling so took out the cayenne pepper and sprinkled it around.
Didn't work, a woodchuck, I fear had a bountiful dinner. Oh well, those were from seeds.
What to take out to the garden, everything and anything you like. I leave my older hoe and pitchfork out and so when I take my compost out the tools to turn it are already there. How bout a comfy chair and a book! Store things in carts, buckets with lids or large ziplock bags [great idea] if you like and as mentioned always bring a smile!

[praying mantis]

The plants get to hear plenty from me. When I am not whistling or singing a string of notes, I tell them how lovely they are, apologize for my mistakes, encourage them to live and thrive, and generally watch over each one of them.

Currently, I carry a bucket with mixed soil stuff, hand tools and hose attachements. Eventually, I plan to sew three sling baggish things with the labels - veggies, herbs, weeds. Imagine a rectangle with two straps on the short ends. A seam is sew up only on one side. Perhaps, I will get to it this weekend.

[cheshirekat]

I see there are several people pollinating by hand. I love my tomatoes but don't think I will. I can't walk out the front door or back without seeing a lot of bees. They are enjoying my veggies, the cherries, the herbs, the strawberries, the blackberries, the flowers, the sedum and all the water I leave in different spots.

I only ask three things in return.

1. Don't sting me.
2. Pollinate for me.
3. Never forget number 1 above, no matter what I'm doing out in the yard.

The easiest should be number 2 because of the number of bees I see every day.

I haven't been stung once in several years. Five years ago, I wouldn't believe it was possible. I'd start screaming and running if I thought I heard a bee, wasp or hornet. I got to the point where I really didn't want to go outside at all for a couple summers - seemed pointless when you run back inside every time you see a bee. If I'd known back then that I've have as many bees in my yard as I currently do, the thought would probably have given me a heart attack.

I still worry about number 3. I know they like to take shelter in the bark of tree limbs and other places and I've nearly squashed them reaching for something and seen a bee or two move at the last moment. And almost every day I have a bee giving me a close inspection around my head and the panic starts for a few seconds before I remember that they haven't stung me in years. But it is still unnerving to me that they do that. I'm always worried that if one gets annoyed with me it will start a chain reaction of the other bees in the near vicinity.

Besides, I wonder if my bees would be insulted if I started doing their job. I could spend hours watching them hover all around my sedum, and the liatris when it blooms. They look so focused and happy to do their thing and the sedum just keeps blooming like crazy. I should know, I keep trying to get a photo of a bumblebee, specifically a good macro shot. It hasn't happened yet, they move too much. The honey bees will stay still for a while but the bumble bees are a constant motion. And I'm patient enough to hover until their pollen sacs are full because I think they will get slower from the weight - but they don't. It is still my goal for this summer. And so I count about two dozen bees hovering at any one time while I am there staling the bumble bees. There is only about six or seven feet of sedum along the sidewalk.

Well, time to go check my tomatoes. I think I'll take my camera. Too hot do much of anything else this evening.

[Laurajbr]

I take my dogs to my vegetable garden. I have all the vegetables planted in raised beds, and the dogs are all miniature breed rescues. The raised beds allow for a running leaping traffic pattern of figure eights for the dogs.

For some reason I have identified one raised bed as female, it is the tomatoes, cucumbers and cilantro, and the other bed of cherry tomatoes and herbs as male. I am sure the neighbors wonder about the fact that I am inquiring aloud about the health and status of the the ladies and gentlemen in the yard.

The other gardening oddity for me is that apprently I take one glove out to the garden. I always seem to have one glove in the potting bench, sometimes the right, sometimes the left. The other glove has been known to turn up in the garage, at the back door, and once by the computer. I must have been checking one of the forums for an answer!

(thank you to all of you who have posted/answered questions!)

[petalfuzz]

I haven't yet sung to my plants, but I did talk to my seedlings and encourage them to grow big and strong.

I wish someone had made clear that when you pluck off suckers from the tomato vines they will keep growing back. Now I bring my bucket every time I go out and check the tomato plants. I also bring out gallons of different "tonics" to help the plants flower.

[Wendel42]

I don't sing to my plants either, but I do play at least an hour of Grateful Dead for them every day. Every now and then I mix in some Allman Bros. (for the hops, they're nonconformists and don't like what everyone else does). Sometimes I can see the corn boogie.

[Brandywinegirl]

I check my community garden plot in the morning before I go to work, then I go back around 7:30 to water and weed. I don't take gloves because I like to feel the dirt in my hands . When my veggies & flowers began to harvest, I will take a straw basket for my tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. I take a bottle of ice cold water, a baseball hat and a towel for the sweat!