Healthy Living starts in the garden...

[mr_p]

I'm a firm believer in the need for us to grow atleast some of our own food, for the very least by retaining our connection to 'planting the seed' but also to cut down on food 'miles', get your feed muddy and earth connected and many many other reasons relate to health and well-being

soooOOooO... let this be the thread about growing things, whether it be Herbs, Spices, Vegies or Fruit Trees

I've just started up my dry-season garden after the big wet and it feels great to be cultivating the soil and watching the little seedlings come up out of the darkness into the light ~

Today is Gardening Day ... I'll post some photo's at the end of it

I'd like see what your growing, especially any inner-city permaculture types.. I love seeing herbs and vegies in pots and on balconies in small spaces~

share, encourage and enjoy (~O~)

to get the ball rolling ~ I'll add some piccy's from my old garden back home

 

[huhwhathuhwhat]

I started a compost pile a couple of months ago, but the damn birds and racoons keep getting itnto it leaving me with nothing!

Your garden looks beautiful though!

I'd like to get my garden to thrive this year as it never seems to due to my lack of dedication and patience. this is definately the year though... I feel it.

 

[cosmic charlie]

Awesome Idea for a Thread

I just turned my garden over yesterday and I'm going to be buying plants from the nursery as soon as it stops raining one of these days. I'll Post Some pictures as soon as I'm done planting :D

LVe & Lite

 

[daysonatrain]

im 25 and recently inherited 5 acres of land. I live/work half the week in the city and once it dries out a bit here im going to spend the rest of the week working on my land (in a beautiful spot in the country). Including clearing land for a field (and someday garden), planting blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and splicing new apple shoots (correct name?) into the 20 giant old apple trees

 

[lackofoptions]

I'm actually waiting for the weather to clear up a bit here as well before planting the garden. Looking forward to it this year, we got a suggestion of trying a hay bale garden so we can compost with it at the same time, and get rid of a lot of the yard waste.

It's actually encouraging to have good luck with it, since I used to have a bit of a "black thumb", plants dying as soon as I watered them. This year we're looking at tomatoes, cucumbers, and various peppers. Hopefully some heirloom tomatoes if I can swing it.

 

[LoveAlways]

^^thats awesome!! congrats! I'm jealous you get to grow all the stuff that we can't grow out here because we dont have a frost season

as some of you may already know my fiance and I recently started a company where we help people start their own fruit/vegetable gardens. We can help maintain them as well, as most of our clientel is older or dont have the time to do it themselves.

This is one of our first gardens

Some broccoli at that garden

Zucchini at another ladies' house

I have tons and tons more. Unfortunately MY yard is really tiny. We grow stuff at my father-in-laws house, or our clients give us their extra food when we go do maintenance.

www.manaoaina.com is our website (Mana O Aina roughly translates to power/strength of the land)

 

[lackofoptions]

Heh, when we were first planning the garden, everybody was like, 'You should grow zucchini!' But I've never really liked it, in fact the taste usually makes me nauseuous.

However, my aunt passed me a relish recipe last year that makes them quite palatable for me which I'm planning on using this year to demolish the usual heaps of donated zucchini that we get from family. It's a lactic acid pickling recipe, so it's actually a good bit tastier.

 

[sad mafioso]

^zucchini bread is also a good way to use up some of the extra zucchini, especially if you're looking for a way to make something that tastes nothing like zucchini.

 

[LoveAlways]

Mmm pickling anything makes it taste sooo good!!!

You should post the recipe for us to try!

 

[daysonatrain]

thanks love, im pretty damn excited, especially owning it with no debts! (oh, and the land is surrounded on all sides, except for along the road, by a nature preserve with long connecting hiking trails ) though i think id trade it for 5 decent growing acres in HI . Apples and stuff are nice, but having a near yearlong (or is it all yearlong?) growing season would be pretty great. Plus winter in Maine can really be a pain. Just checked out your website, very cool business idea! Is this a full time business for you guys or just a side project? Im trying to think up ways i can make some money off my land and be able to travel during the wintertime

 

[mr_p]

im 25 and recently inherited 5 acres of land. I live/work half the week in the city and once it dries out a bit here im going to spend the rest of the week working on my land (in a beautiful spot in the country). Including clearing land for a field (and someday garden), planting blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and splicing new apple shoots (correct name?) into the 20 giant old apple trees

WOW!~ that is so awesome .. you are one blessed human being

the term you describe is called 'grafting' where you connect the cambian layer of your apple rootstock and whatever other selection for the fruiting top half...

 

[mr_p]

^^thats awesome!! congrats! I'm jealous you get to grow all the stuff that we can't grow out here because we dont have a frost season

as some of you may already know my fiance and I recently started a company where we help people start their own fruit/vegetable gardens. We can help maintain them as well, as most of our clientel is older or dont have the time to do it themselves.

This is one of our first gardens

Some broccoli at that garden

Zucchini at another ladies' house

I have tons and tons more. Unfortunately MY yard is really tiny. We grow stuff at my father-in-laws house, or our clients give us their extra food when we go do maintenance.

www.manaoaina.com is our website (Mana O Aina roughly translates to power/strength of the land)

thats so awesome LoveAlways... you must really have some gardening skills if you do it for a living ~ nice neat looking garden too.... is it organically maintained ?

 

[mr_p]

and seriously ... who eats zucchini raw anyway ?? just like ginger or garlic... .its all in how you cook with it

 

[clamjuice]

Wicked, im glad we got another garden thread for this year!

I myself am waiting for warmer weather, still too cold to plant anything yet. I live in ontario, canada. Where are you guys growing?

this year im gonna try some new things with my garden. I wanna start doing some rain collection and crop rotation, warming some soil, and maybe some little makeshift greenhouse covers to get the ball rolling earlier.
I think you should give zuchinnis a try, their super eacy to grow and have a huge yield per plant. Have you tried the yellow ones? I like them a little better. If you slice zuchinni up and put some butter on them, then put em in tinfoil, toss em on the barbecue and they make some great eats! also good gifts, that you dont have to pay for. Just use your home vegetables and you save money, plus most people love those kinds of gifts!

 

[Mehm]

great pics everyone, nice work! I live in coastal central california, so we have nice deep frost, but year round growing season. Pretty much perfect farming weather except for water restrictions. I personally rent a place in the woods and don't really want to build a fence on rented land. This is how I discovered that deer eat all of the leafy greens, cabbage and broc. They leave onions, garlic, parsley and strawbearies alone however.

Now I'm basically growing out a huge bed of grass/weeds in order to improve the soil for future use.

pics soon!

 

[Dave]

lackofoptions-- have you tried just roasting it? Cut them into smallish pieces, coat with a bit of oil and season with salt and pepper, roast in a hot oven (375 F at least) until browned, turning as necessary. Check seasoning again and perhaps add a bit of other flavouring. I like a bit of chili flake, oregano and fresh squeezed lemon juice. Toss with some fresh tomato, cucumber and red onion and you've got a tasty veggie side dish.

Mehm-- I've heard that clover/alfalfa are great for regenerating soil. Especially nitrogen fixation. Are you growing anything in particular while regenerating, or just letting it go to seed naturally?

 

[Mehm]

I've heard that clover/alfalfa are great for regenerating soil. Especially nitrogen fixation.

This is absolutely true.

Are you growing anything in particular while regenerating, or just letting it go to seed naturally?

I just let it go naturally. Since the natural weeds grow very quickly and don't appear to be invasive (I can pull them easily), I figured this is the best option rather than loosing a couple of months of growth by buying and planting something foreign like alfalfa. I also am not sure if the deer will eat the alfalfa like they did everything else. What I'm shooting for with the weeds is upping the carbon content of the soil.

It was pretty cool to learn what can and can't be planted around here without a fence. My onions are dank too

 

[clamjuice]

So is this property you have just for your garden? thats pretty cool! im stuck in suburbia and have to make do with my backyard, although its large enough that it takes up a good amount of time taming and tending to alll the plants sometimes.

Another good plant that puts back into the soil is the almighty ganjabus hehe

 

[lackofoptions]

lackofoptions-- have you tried just roasting it?

I've tried a few preperations, including roasting, baking, and breading and frying. The zucchini bread and the relish are the ones that work the best. The rest still tend to give a bit of nausea.

I'll try and track down the relish recipe for people to try, but I have to find it first. I got it last fall and it's in a stack of papers that still needs to be gone through. It involves a decent chunk of sugar, but that tends to get used up in the pickling process since it's a lactic acid versus a vinegar pickling.

 

[daysonatrain]

hm, personally i love zucchini in stir fries and any cooking method really. my family used to skin them, then grate them up and freeze them in bags, perfect for making zucchini bread in the winter.

recently cut off shoots for grafting to my apple trees in the fall