Do You Have A Garden, Why Or Why Not?

[Baymule]

Why do you have a garden and what do you raise? How does it benefit you and your family? If you do not have a garden, why? Is it space, time, are you physically unable or just disintrested?

I have a garden and have had most of my life. I live on a small lot in town surrounded by large oaks.... well maybe not so much, hurricanes have toppled several.

Anyway, when I decided on a garden the narrow strip of hard dirt between the sidewalk and driveway in the front yard got the most sun, so that's where it went. Surprisingly, I raise a lot of the vegetables we eat. I use no chemicals, only organic methods. I dig my small beds with a shovel, compost, and then plant. It works out to 3 weekends of really hard work twice a year (spring and fall garden) and then maintenance the rest of the time. I open out paper feed sacks or use newspapers, weighed down by bricks, and cover the beds. I cut a hole in the paper and plant the vegetable plant. This cuts down on weeds and helps to hold in moisture. If I plant seed, I wait for it to come up and then lay strips of papers down.

In the spring/summer I raise tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, zuchinni, yellow squash, bell pepper, bananna pepper, okra, basil, green beans, cucumbers, and then I usually try something different to see if we like it and will it grow for me. In the fall, I plant broccoli, cauliflower, green onions, lettuce, mustard greens, turnips, collard greens, garlic, cabbage and toss in something new to try.

Because of space, I don't have 50' rows, but I get a lot of food which saves on the grocery bill. Plus it tastes so good and supper is picking what is ready that day, taking it in the house and preparing it. I even get enough to can, freeze and dehydrate for later.

My green bean garden is 1' wide and 12' long. Out of 12 square feet, we have had green beans since spring and they are still bearing. Plus we have shared with friends and family. I am posting links to BYC's sister site, The Easy Garden. Go have a look around and join the fun!

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=33860

My sweet potatoes

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=33974

New potatoes

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=33864

And chicken composters!

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=34465

What are you waiting on? Get outside and dig you a garden!!

 

[KnobbyOaks]

Thanks for the thread. I do have a garden and you have introduced me to a nice new website.

Just have moved from the Houston area to a rural, fully forested area west of there so my garden is just beginning with fall plantings. But I have always had a garden no matter where I lived. Cabbage, broccoli, onions and tomatoes are growing well. I have very, very poor soil for growing so I'm having to supplement it. Hoping chickens will help to enrich it.

 

[oldrooster]

physical unable to my health problems are my own doing. but I was forced to as a kid help in my parents garden and I would more than likely try again on my own some day health permitting, but something on your scale or a little larger, not near the size my parents had probbably an acre.

 

[sourland]

I have a garden because nobody, except maybe Capvin, can grow tomatoes that taste as good as mine.

 

[cupman]

I have a garden for two reasons:
1) home grown vegetables taste better.. like you can taste your work and patience paying off.
2) it's fun and rewarding.

 

[Malita]

I have had small container gardens for a few years for various chili peppers. This is my first full year with chickens and my first year with a real garden. Turns out if your compost has a lot of wood in it (as it does from my local garden center) it saps nitrogen and you won't yield any zuchini. Lesson learned there. But now that I have lots of free high-nitrogen fertilizer, thank you girls!, that won't be a problem next year. My bell peppers, green beans and tomatoes did great despite the heat wave of 113 deg in North Texas this summer. And I found my garden at 10x10 was way too small. Hubby and I lover our vegetables. Unfortunately we're on 1 acre with 200 trees and a creek. So many hills and trees, and the one big flat sunny spot is the 16x24 chicken run attached to a 7x8 covered run attached to their coop - yes they are SPOILED rotten.

 

[DadandJB]

We have a garden that varies from 40x80 to as much as 90x100 depending on what we are growing. Now that most of the kids are grown (with only our baby JB still in school) we usually keep it on the smaller side...around 3500 sq ft. We raise everything from asparagus to zucchini. I have two greenhouses that I set up each spring and start everything from seed. We also have peach trees, apple trees and grape vines (for jelly and fresh eating only...no wine). I garden because I love to be outside. I also love fresh vegetables. To me, there is nothing better than sticking my hands in warm dirt. We do a lot of canning and freezing!

 

[Sionnach Dhu]

I've always had a small garden in past years, sort of have/had a garden this year, but plan to have a real one next year.

The "sort of" is due to the fact that I combined households with my significant other at the end of last summer, and this year was too busy with a new job and getting my chicken house built to follow through with garden plans. I did, however, get a bird, bee, and butterfly garden started in the front yard, which incorporated herbs, peppers, and bush eggplant with the flowers.**

I plan to get the bigger garden started over the winter; going to fence in one corner of the yard & use some landscape timbers and/or concrete blocks to create an area I can start filling in with compost and so forth. The fencing part is crucial - we have two acres, which are already completely fenced in except for the front yard, but that's because we have six dogs. The dogs are also why the chicken quarters took a while to build - we put a second fence 4' out from the chicken run as extra security.

As to why a garden- as someone else said, homegrown veggies taste better. There's also the desire to be as self-sufficient and "green" as possible... and it's just plain good therapy/serenity-building to work in a garden. I plan to have heirloom tomatoes, green beans, eggplant, squash, carrots, radishes, and maybe potatoes.


Re the "b.b.b." garden - I used 4' timbers to create a 4' x 4' raised bed in the front yard, and filled it with a mixture of purchased topsoil and well-composted horse manure - the previous owners of our property had horses & left behind an old manure pile. I added a bird bath I've had since I was in grade school & two posts-with-hooks that hold a variety of bird feeders (hummingbird feeder, thistle seed for finches, two feeders of regular seed, sunflower seeds, and suet). Then I planted 2/3 of it with a mixture of flowers liked by bees and butterflies, the peppers & eggplants, and herbs (some of which double as bee-attracters).
The area directly under the feeders I left unplanted, and it's now got a good growth of volunteer millet, small sunflowers, and so forth from spilled birdseed.

Not only does it help wildlife & give us an ever-changing show we can watch out the windows, it keeps the wild birds away from my chickens, who are in the back of our property.

 

[Carebearsmiles]

Nice thread. Thanks for the thoughts and inspiration.
I just purchased my first house this summer, so I missed the spring/summer season of growing. I have a small small garden of broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cabbage going now. And I cannot wait until next year. I am composting to get ready for the spring/summer garden(s) I hope to have.

My question is... how do you keep your poultry out of your gardens? My birds free range my backyard. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to keep them out of my (hopefully) large garden next year.

I was wondering about the garden site... I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep up with both sites...
I'll have to check it out.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I garden because i enjoy gardening. Besides the veggies, i have a nice small collection of irises and I grow fruit trees as my hobby.

OK, I confess. I grow fruit trees because I love to eat fruit.