I love to garden, but until this year, I've stuck to mostly flowers and plants. Sure, I've thrown in the occasional herb (rosemary, basil, and lavender) and I've tried to add plants to ward off mosquitoes (like catnip, citronella, horse mint, and marigolds) but I've never given fruit or vegetables a go.
One of the reasons why I didn't try was because I didn't want to deal with watering all those plants. The summers get hot and dry here in central VA and container plants require daily watering.However, when both of my kids begged me to plant something they could "harvest," I decided to give farming life a try. I use that term loosely, because farmers are awesome folks who work tirelessly to bring the rest of us fresh food, but when my kids and I planted those potatoes, raspberry bushes, cantaloupes, baby watermelons, and strawberries, I was feeling pretty darned salt-of-the-earthish.
Are these plants going to flourish? I have no clue, but the potato plants have sprouted leaves and the strawberries have been bearing fruit for weeks now, so I'm feeling pretty positive. Next up? String beans and cucumbers because we might actually be daring enough to make our own pickles (tune in next year for that story!)
I know many of you don't have space for fruit and veggie plants, so I wanted to post pics of some creative space problem solvers. And here's a pic of my own farmhand harvesting a strawberry (it went right into her mouth actually!)Are you growing fruit or veggies at home? Which ones and have you enjoyed any yet?
6 comments:
I have a small garden in my back yard. It is two rows on either side of my fence and three tiers in the corner of my backyard. I have tomatoes, green peppers, two different, lettuces, spinach, green onions, radishes, zucchini, cucumbers. My back porch rail holds all my herbs (basil, oregano, sage, chives, cilantro, three different mints, and strawberries. We have already enjoyed lettuce, radishes, green onions, the spinach (which is now all gone),and one green pepper so far. Love to garden. I also have two large flower beds with perrenials and annuals. I have a rose garden as well. I live in East Tennessee, so we have a great garden season. Enjoy your new garden!
I dont have a garden this year...but I remember growing up on a farm and I miss growing tomatoes, radishes, corn ( and lots more! )
I haven't done much planting for years because I am not home or at the cabin enough to keep things watered. I miss the tomatoes the most because the store ones just are not that tasty. Someday, maybe next year when my husband is retired, I will get some planted at the cabin...
I live in an apartment with no patio or balcony, so no garden here, but I do have access to one at work. My favorites are the zucchini, green beans and acorn squash. There are also tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, and this year they decided to try some snap peas. Personally, I would also love to have carrots, broccoli, brussels sprouts, spinach and strawberries. I think I'd like to try growing potatoes sometime, too.
When we retired we moved to a townhouse. We can only plant in pots and we have tried that for a few years, but sun is not plentiful the way our house is positioned so having one or two small tomatoes during the entire season just doesn't make it worth the effort. We have tried other things too, and the plants look great, and we fertilize well, do perfect watering techniques, and do whatever they say to do, and yet no produce. So, for now, I put some of the indoor plants on my front porch for the summer and just go to the farm stand for my fresh vegetables and fruit.:) Being handicapped means no community gardens for me either, but that is fine, I had the garden for years, and now it is time to just remember that and settle for what I do have. Right?
I have a very tiny garden, but I do like some pots with bell peppers and tomatoes and strawberries.
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