Healthy Living starts in the garden...

[jam uh weezy]

just extended my garden outwards 5 feet. it's 12x15 now! god damn converting grass into a space to grow stuff is a biiitch. but it's worth it...i usually give almost everything away except the stuff i really like, i just like growing things to grow things..
started a new crop a few weeks ago, it'll be my third. and i finally got to taste my strawberries for the first time. it was best 2 strawberries i've ever eaten.

i'll get some pics up when some interesting stuff starts happening.



oh yea and raw zuchini is booomb. slice it up, dip it in ranch. mmmmm

 

[Dtergent]

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.

Steal your neighbor's leaves also? I've found leaf-stealing in residential areas to be a very high-return activity (started with clay/rock/subsoil).

I would do the same thing with the weeds. Just sometimes I would chuck a handful of basil and flower seeds out. They do, at times, overtake the weeds. That is if I'm lucky-- then everyone I know gets a jar of pesto.

The parts of the garden I can't manage I just leave to grow. Some grass is taller than myself It's good to see the natural succession though. The leguminous crawlers are starting to flower and I've put those in rice-- the rice turns blue :D

I'll get some photos up soon.. It's the height of summer and I've been pretty busy, but things are growing :D

 

[LivingInTheMoment]

some amazing vegie patches, but the photography is even more amazing!!
I am afraid i don't have one, though I love them, many Europeans grow their own greens!

I live on a 3rd floor apartment, so I only grow herbs in a pot, and it feels good when I use them....whenever I decide to cook!

 

[LoveAlways]

Just checked out your website, very cool business idea! Is this a full time business for you guys or just a side project?

I would LOVE for it to be full-time but for now its a side project. EVERYONE and their mother out here is a gardener so there's not many people to work with...

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 ?

Mahalo, but its actually my fiance that has the green thumb I'm just starting to learn-but its so much fun and totally rewarding! And yes everything we build is organic.

Clamjuice--AWESOME pics! Thats a nice looking space you got there!!!

 

[mariacallas]

Hehe nice thread and I just couldnt resist posting this.

 

[Nibiru]

It's been an unusually cold year, so I haven't even planted anything yet, but today I will plant some orach, spinach, lettuce, quinoa, fenugreek, parsley (Hamburg, Italian and curly) and a few other hardy things. I'm going to wait for my peas, because we might get a freeze still, and i don't want them to rot. Later I'll do some green lentils and soybeans, one edamame type, one dry-bean type, some black turtle beans, green and yellow snap beans, chili peppers, basil, black krim and roma tomatoes, some mapacho (nicotiana rustica, Indian tobacco) and a whole bunch of other things I can't remember off hand.

 

[mr_p]

I am planting some Italian parsely, haven't been able to source and curly, love that stuff too

your gardens sounds like its goin to full of goodies

just had some great rain last night and its over cast today, perfect time to plant

 

[Dtergent]

The sun is really really harsh out here now. Small-leaf plants are definitely going through a crisis in my garden. Tropical gardening without a LOT of trees is fak, I dunno. I took these photos just this morning.

Sweet potato plants are thriving though

Cucumbers are doing a weary siesta, but they perk up when the sun is gone

Okra and mung beans (and zinnia about to bloom). Okra thrives in the sun and is a good way to shade out more sensitive plants. There are some tomatoes planted in here and they are doing better than those in other plots-- you can't see them as they are enveloped by the okra.

Yung mung bean pods

Tomatoes. Our tomato varieties here are sour and smaller than those in the West.

Okra

Squash patch making it out into the coconut shells I've dumped

I'm excited about this seedling, the mabolo.

The heat has made us lean more towards our edible trees/large shrubs such as this one (I'm not sure what it's called).

And this lettuce tree

Continuous datura baby rearing (with a stray papaya on the right)

New chickie

This is where I relax (a wooden swing with vine roots hanging about).

 

[Nibiru]

Man, I wish I could do okra here. Well, I could, I just would need a greenhouse to give it a jumpstart.

 

[clamjuice]

Man it snowed here today haha. It supposed to be spring here. Id be curious to know where everyone is growing at just in relation to climates and seasons, you know compare your growth with others. Maybe people arent willing to leave that info cause of other posts? I think itd be a neat idea.

Also how many of you guys sow in plots then transplant vs direct sowing into the garden?

 

[Nibiru]

It depends on the plants. Some plants are more well suited to direct sowing (some I just let self seed) and some are more well suited for transplanting. Some things like poppies just hate to have their roots disturbed, and usually wind up dying no matter how careful you are with them. It also has a bit to do with climate. Tomatoes and peppers are usually given a jump start indoors by farmers and gardeners alike out here (southern interior of BC) where squash and pumkins are sown directly at the start of May. Stuff like corn and peas are best to direct seed, I find, and garlic cloves and onion sets are best planted in site during the fall.

 

[jam uh weezy]

Lovely pictures Bea! I didn't know okra blooms were so pretty, even if i think it tastes gross.
and your relax spot makes me quite jealous...


here's a a sneak preview of my shtuff.....

strawberry patch. just last july this was a single potted plant. corn in back.

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sunflowers are doing good...

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these came from some random, decrepit cactus that has been around stuffed outta sight for as long as i can remember. over 10 years. one day i decided to liberate it from neglect & dismay...the two buds on top already had root systems started. the two on bottom are tip cuttings from, dipped in a rooting hormone. i've never tried to root a cutting that small, so it's kind of an experiment... cuttings that dont have roots to supply water quickly turn yellow when left in the sun. woops!

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well hey there little guy!!

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yea, and this is what happens when you try to propagate a strawberry runner before it has developed a root system. sheeeit i'm learning still.

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[ocean]

Oh I love this thread!
I can't wait until lit is warm enough for me to plant! I will be posting pictures when that time comes

 

[Dtergent]

Thanks Adam. I am impressed by your strawberries I am also growing two types of corn now!

 

[Mehm]

red lettuce

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view from the back porch. the big weed patch is amended soil that was originally planted with all kinds of goodies. deer ate everything except the green onions and garlic on the right. i'm going to dig all of the weeds into the soil for the carbon.

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wild milk thistle

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the pad

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a kambucha (sweet pumpkin) patch in Japan that I helped harvest

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an old Japanese farming truck with harvested buck wheat in the background. this is the old school way of hand harvesting and drying. we did most of it in the rain!

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indoor strawberries

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sudachi grove

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expensive Japanese beef

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space aliens

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a massive rototiller driven by yours truly

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[jam uh weezy]

Thanks Adam. I am impressed by your strawberries I am also growing two types of corn now!

OO cool what kinds? Right now I only have sweet corn, but I wanna grow popcorn next. I never knew that popcorn came from a particular strain of corn haha.

Strawberries require the most attention out of anything else I got growing, I appreciate that.

 

[Dtergent]

^White sticky corn and golden sweet corn. The white sticky corn is really good in porridge and mixed with coconut milk and sugar I prefer them, actually. They are commonly deep fried into chichacorn (kind of like a chicharron for vegetarians) with garlic and salt.

The golden sweet corn will have some in maybe a week. I"m pretty excited. I got those seeds from a grocery so they must be super engineered or something, haha. The white corn I got from some indigenous peoples drying some kernels outside their house up in the mountains (I asked for some). Those are still taking their time and are much shorter.

I've got to go to Europe later this month and am actually pretty bummed out about leaving the garden

I harvested mustard and amaranth greens and ivy gourds today! We're having mung beans at home for lunch too (from garden as well). But I'm here, at a meeting, so

 

[jam uh weezy]

When I buy seeds I try to get ones labelled "organic". The store was out when i got corn so I had to get a normal pack. It says 'disease resistant' and it's a hybrid so it's probably genetically modified for sure. The white sticky corn sounds intriguing, do you plan on drying any of the kernals out for future use? We should do an exchange!

I know how you feel leaving your garden. My plants are like my babies. When one of my sunflowers got diseased last year, it felt like I was just throwing out the corpse of a pet animal I had. I felt dirty. Shoulda had a service for it. :D

It's always interesting to hear about the plants and different varieties being grown in different regions of the world. Ivy gourd and mung beans sounds like they would make a good stirfry.

I just started a bunch of romaine lettuce. A little late, but I chose a shadier location so they should be good.

 

[Dave]

I just spent the last three hours spreading compost around my Grandparent's garden. They're at the point now where they can't take care of it themselves, so I'm adopting it! I'm so excited.

Except that they let their compost go anaerobic, so it smelled horrible. Two showers later and I still smell like horribly acidic shit.

 

[jam uh weezy]

^haha you'll learn to love it. i started using only forest-humus compost, it hardly stinks at all. not as cheap tho.


Mehm, I completely space out on your post. Great pictures, is the cattle used for "Kobe" beaf?