Nevadans?

[Peep_Show]

re: Container gardening

I can grow herbs like there's no tomorrow, but cannot manage a tomato here to save my life. Thank goodness for roadside produce stands when I do my CA treks.

In LV it is REALLY difficult to grow a tomato in the ground or a container. Leslie Doyle (our local tomato maven) can do it, but she's got raised beds and expensive reflective mulch and an elaborate underground watering system to care for her Hawaiian varieties. I tried, but even the tropical kinds tend to suffer the vagaries of our summer weather. We've actually got two growing seasons for tomatoes...right before and right after summer and so the season is short. Otherwise it's too hot to set flower and the scirroco (sp) winds tend to dessicate the plants in no time flat or you end up with a bunch o' small green frying tomatoes because the first frost hits. Somebody could make a fortune if they came up with a 45 day tomato as we tend to jumpstart our seasons down south here.

However, bush beans do great! Got all sorts of Romano beans (flat italian style) out of our front-door containers. Our peppers (some sort of bargain jalepeno that was unlabeled) grew great big bushes during the summer heat, but didn't set fruit until September or so. Got lots of neat little pickling peppers from them. And during the winter right now I've got a great crop of kale and broccoli going.

I am SO envious of those of you that can do veggies proper and righteously. Someday....someday....someday my gardening tools will get to be used regularly. But right now it seems so, well, pointless. And I don't like nopales and prickly pears enough to consider growing them.... (nopales = cactus leaves, particularly suited to our climate)

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Here's a 55-day tomato... http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1554/233

But I've never gardened in Vegas. I've gardened in the Idaho mountains, where the latest freeze is mid-June and the first is mid-September on an average year. And I've gardened here in Reno, where about all you can count on is spending a ton for water.

My personal belief on tomatoes: it's all about love. If you want to save money on veggies, don't count on tomatoes. A cheap supermarket hothouse tomato is going to be a huge bargain after all the time and water it takes for a plant, and the best-tasting ones don't produce a ton. But OH the taste! I believe the most cost-efficient tomato varieties are cherries and grapes, where you can get a ton from one plant. And cherries are so expensive at the supermarket. They're my favorite because the family all get packed lunches, and I just go out and pick a bowl full, rinse them, and stuff them in sandwich bags. They're the first things eaten.

Same thing with bell peppers. One plant will produce 3-4 peppers, and they just plain won't get as big as the ones grown in Ecuador or a California greenhouse. But banana peppers are just as sweet, grow 8 inches long, and grow up to 35 per plant. Anaheims grow a good 20 or so per plant and you can use them in so many recipes. We learned to look for sales of "ugly" bell peppers, buy them in bulk, and freeze them. Last year, Walmart had some that had grown all twisted, for 25 cents apiece. Perfectly tasty, just ugly.

After reading a blog about why the blogger will always grow swiss chard, I started some last year. Holy moly, now I will forever grow it. Cheap seed, grows right through a frost, and it grows back each time you cut it. I really liked it fried up with some fresh onions and yukon gold potatoes. Lettuce, too, WAY paid off. I'd just take a chair and enjoy the sunshine while trimming off the outer leaves of each plant, about every other week. A 2'x2' area gave us about the equivalent of a bag of storebought lettuce, per week.

Green beans, too, saved us a ton of money. Dry beans are cheap, but fresh green beans aren't. My husband built teepees from old tiki torch poles and dollar store line, and I had one teepee per bean variety. If I didn't pick beans every other day, they'd start to overtake me. The family ate them raw in their lunches, dipped in hummus.

Radishes are cheap to grow, but cheap to buy. The best thing I've found to do with radishes is use them as "bug bait." The bugs eat them first, and as long as you keep the bug population controlled, they'll fill up on radishes before going after your other stuff. Snow and sugar snap peas are a definite bargain to grow, if you have a good vertical area with deep enough soil

Has anyone grown eggplants? I put 3 varieties on my Park Seed order, and figured I'd try some in buckets and some in my planter box. They're all 55-day baby varieties. This will be my first year doing eggplants, though... I've got tomatoes and peppers down, so I figured they wouldn't be too different.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

If any of you are interested I can get you all the spent coffee grounds your little hearts could desire. It's really good for your soil and all you'd have to do is pick out the filters. I can get bags of the stuff

 

[americanvalkyrie]

If any of you are interested I can get you all the spent coffee grounds your little hearts could desire. It's really good for your soil and all you'd have to do is pick out the filters. I can get bags of the stuff

The filters break down fast, or just bury them more than 6 inches deep. I used a lot of grounds last year. They're also SUPER good for compost... high in nitrogen, and they absorb the smell.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

These filters are non-compostable. They say you shouldn't add white filters to your compost or soil because of the amount of bleach in them. Just because something breaks down easily doesn't mean it should go in your soil. HOWEVA! If you guys don't care then whatev I was just offering something I can actually help with

 

[NevadaRon]

Here are the birthday cakes I slaved over last night.

Wow!

Those are amazing!

 

[americanvalkyrie]

These filters are non-compostable. They say you shouldn't add white filters to your compost or soil because of the amount of bleach in them. Just because something breaks down easily doesn't mean it should go in your soil. HOWEVA! If you guys don't care then whatev I was just offering something I can actually help with

Ok, I didn't realize you guys used the white filters. When I start turning my soil, I'll probably carry a bucket or two over and get some grounds.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

I could totally bring them to you since they get thrown out multiple times a day I could just set your bucket off to the side and have em fill it!

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Ugh btw I can't believe that I forgot to tell you how goood your bread was. It was magical

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Thanks, Aubrey, on both accounts!