I'm a little slow finding this post, but I'm a garden addict. I might love it more than my chickens, but don't tell them. I have really spread the garden out this year, and unfortunately, only filled about half up until last week. Three days ago I found quite a patch of volunteer tomatoes in the tomato bed (separate from the main garden, so I can rotate in the case of any issues). I moved the new plants to the garden and filled up four, 25 ft rows. Now the garden doesn't look near as empty, but I'm not sure what I will do with the extra tomatoes this year. We have excellent luck with all varieties of tomatoes here. Last year I canned about 50 quarts and started to give them away mid-July. This year I have also planted brocolli and cauliflower, about 20 different greens, romaine lettuce, parsley, onions, potatoes, bell pepper, kohlrabi, beets, radishes, sweet corn, and carrots. So far so good and it looks like at this rate, I should have a good year.
Now to explain my addiction....
I grew up in town, never had a garden. Married a man that grew up living off the land. Now have to feed three little ones and with the price of gas, store trips are just not possible. So I decided to bust my butt and make it so we could live off of our 5 acres the best we could. So far we are raising chickens for eggs and meat, have a garden capable of producing enough produce to feed our family all year round, we hunt deer, rabbit, squirrel, etc for the rest of the meat. The only things I buy at the store are milk, bread, and butter, but I would really like to start with a dairy animal of some sort, and I will be planting grains for the fall garden to make bread at home. I spend a good two hours each day in the garden, weeding, harvesting, planting, etc. I drag my kids out there to keep an eye on them and let them "help" the best they can.
So glad to see so many gardeners and can't wait to read your posts! Going to be a late night...
