What types of food do you grow?

[RedCloud]

I grow some of the usuals and a few exotics:
Tomatoes (two varieties)
Red Bell Peppers
Lettuce
Green Beans
String beans
Snap peas
Garlic (sure keeps bad bugs away!)
Melons
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Asparagus
Eggplants

Strawberries (4 types)
Blueberries (6 types)
Raspberries
Currants (2 types)
Peaches (2 types)
Plums
Apples (3 types)
Grapes (3 types)
Cherries (2 types)
Apricots
Pecans (2 types)

And surprise:
(These go indoors for the winter)
Tangerines
Oranges
Avocados

I failed at corn and peanuts!!!

This stuff keeps me real busy and AWOL from DU Friday through Sunday.

[Shell Beau]

1. Wow that is a lot of gardening you must do!

[RedCloud]

4. Yep. It puts the "red" in Red Cloud.

It also makes me want to look in disgust at grocery prices. Tomatoes are easy, should not cost hardly anything. Blueberries are really hard to pick at a viable rate out of the brambles so I just make juices out of it, as I don't want to think I can only get about 4 pounds per hour. Yet their price per pound is pretty similar in the stores.

Forgot to mention, that these are all organically grown.

[Shell Beau]

5. I wish I had the time

and the talent to do what you do. One day...

[Hugin]

2. Mainly mold and fungus.

Sounds as if you've got quite the green thumb.

[RedCloud]

8. Try some old leaves.

Especially, if they have the white mold on them. That is usually toxic to other molds and the leaves add needed carbon.

Soils need to be tilled. I keep the scraps and add saw dust or other forms of carbon and work it back into the soil after composting. Best of all is the compost "oil" that flows from the metal composter. A few drops of that stuff and life stays green for months. Sadly some resilient weeds have found that the drops will splatter on them too under the composter.

I started out like a fool, but once the home made compost got in the soil it looked like coffee grounds. I had to steal leaves late at night (my neighbors would howl with laughter if they caught me) and store them. Then I worked them into the soil in the fall and like magic the plants would be about twice as productive the following year.

I learned never compost grass as the seeds will still be in it and sprout next year in the garden with vigor.

[Hugin]

20. Good tip on not composting grass clippings...

Hadn't thought of the problem with the seeds.

Unless, of course I was going to use the compost on my
lawn.

Need separate piles.

[tridim]

If I had more room I'd grow all that stuff

But I only have room for Roma and Better Boy tomatoes, strawberries and mint. The mint was an accident, but I like it. It's also good for keeping the pests away.

[RedCloud]

12. Spices rule, but they sure do spread.

I forgot about those! I have some for teas.

[tridim]

34. Yea, my accidental mint came from a dirt transplant..

One seed has become 4 monster bushes in 1 year.

The strawberries are the same way.. 6 initial plants are now about 100 plants. It's a challege to keep them from creeping even further.

[soothsayer]

3. lots of heirloom tomatoes and semi-exotic peppers this year

and an eggplant! and a cuke!

off the top of my head:

Tomatoes:
white tomato
beefsteak tomato
mexican tomato
russian pink tomato
Polish linguisa tomato
sioux
purple eva
black cherry
black brandywine
green zebra
mr. stripey
sun gold
sweet million
sugar baby
early girl
first lady
some yellow kind
roma
fourth of july

Peppers:
chile relleno
italian relleno
big bertha (green)
chocolate pepper
chocolate habernero
jumbo jalapeno
purple jalapeno
thai dragon
shoot! i have 26 peppers and have forgotten most

[RedCloud]

11. A most impressive array. I am amazed.

I need a little variety of each, what with the food prices and hungry kids to feed...

[soothsayer]

16. thanks! i only have one of each plant, and most of the peppers

are in earth boxes (trying them for the first time this year!).

So far so good.

oh! and

rosemary
basil
thyme
parsley
sage
thai basil
peppermint
lavendar
cilantro
oregano
bay
wormwood

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Wow!

We just have tomatoes, three herbs, and mulberries. All other gardening consists of bushes, flowers, and ornamentals. No edibles. (Well, if we had to, i guess we could eat the leaves.)
The Professor

[RedCloud]

15. Professor, have you found the good folks at Spray n Grow?

Their sprays are excellent for ornamentals. But I find it just makes everything so plentiful that I have to keep making new stands just to hold the stuff up. Foxtails over seven feet high. It's pretty but a lot of work.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. Nope

I'll look into it. We've got TONS of bushes and flowers. We spent out big First Class/Five Star 25th anniversary trip to Europe money on a full-blown landscaping project. (17 years of savings!)

We always had lots of bushes and flowers, but now it's all so artistic! So, obviously, we've got tons invested in this, so we need to be way into the upkeep and pruning and like that. We always did the weeding and feeding, but we've both got to take it up a notch now.

I'll look into Spray n Grow. Thanks.
The Professor

[LaurenG]

7. I am truly impressed

I wish we could grow food at my house. We have moles and I refuse to kill them so I grow things in pots.

[RedCloud]

17. I wonder if moles will leave by vibrations?

I have often seen an ad to repel them by vibrations, but I don't have moles as the soil is not to their liking. So I cannot attest to the product.

However when the pecans get bigger (this is the first year they are bearing)I will have to keep the squirrels out. None so far, but that is only a matter of time.

[Blue Diadem]

9. Wow..

That's an impressive list.

We're growing:
cucumbers
zucchini
pumpkin
sugar-baby watermelon
some kind of hot banana pepper
two types of green bell type peppers
roma tomatoes
beefsteak tomatoes
an heirloom tomato variety that my neighbor gave me
leaf lettuce

I want to add some fruit trees, strawberry plants and berry bushes. I grew up with apple trees, pear trees, cherry trees and blackberries, I miss that.

[RedCloud]

21. Pumpkins. Now I know you have the space.

I foolishly put the trees too close to the house. This means that the ones that get the early morning sun will bloom first and then their mates a little later. If I had to do it all over the trees would be in the open spaces to get equal sun and maximize their potential.

I have June bearing strawberries which replaced the other variety. True they were bigger and the harvest was so bountiful I didn't even put the nets up to keep the birds out, but now I miss the other variety.

Good luck.

[Wickerman]

10. Man, that is great!

I am envious of your growth!

We only manage to get these:

Tomatoes (three varieties)
Green Peppers
Lettuce
Spinach
Cucumbers
Broccoli
Rhubarb
and next year we are hoping for Asparagus.

[RedCloud]

22. Still that is a good variety.

I am just now starting with asparagus. I got the super male and purple varieties and like you have to wait a year. Should be worth the wait.

[Wickerman]

29. I love some asparagus!

The Rhubarb is getting started over, too. We dug up what we had this summer as I think it had gone to seed too often before we moved in. It tasted a little funky.

We only planted one variety of Asparagus, but if it works in my soil I look to expand it.

I would love to get into berries like you, man, oh man. And, having lived in Texas I miss my Pecan trees. They don't work as well here in MN.

[hyphenate]

13. I don't have a garden

but I do grow a lot of mold. It seems to flourish on its own, though. ;)

[RedCloud]

23. Maybe mushrooms then?

Sounds like you may have their ideal breeding grounds.

[WCGreen]

14. Mold Fungus....

Oh you meant human food....

[RedCloud]

25. Not necessarily.

We are food to lots of little critters.

[BamaGirl]

18. Not nearly as much as I'd like

I grow the typical stuff for my area.
lettuce, 2 varieties
tomatoes, 3 varieties
bell peppers
jalepeno peppers
watermellon
green beans
lima beans
cucumbers

herbs
several mints
parsley
basil
oregano
lavendar, 2 types
rosemary
chives

fruit
oranges
limes
lemons
keylime, although my keylime is looking very puny

[RedCloud]

27. key lime pie?

Brings back mouth watering memories.

I wanted to go back south, but I knew I could not grow "north" in the south. The south does just fine in a green house up north.

Are you too far up to grow mangoes? If I could grow them I would not tend to my farm and just munch all them all day log, nature's dental floss!

[BamaGirl]

33. No, I could grow them here

I'm debating getting a mango and a kumquat. I really don't have the space for more stuff. The citrus section of the nursery is dangerous lol. I've been avoided it for months lol.

[I Know How To Do it]

24. I GROWED A WALNUT ONCE.

[RedCloud]

28. Only once?

Did your tree get chopped down?

[I Know How To Do it]

32. Tree?

[LiberalEsto]

26. Tomatos and sugar snap peas are the bare minimum

but most years I also plant

banana peppers
yellow squash
basil
romaine lettuce
cucumbers
marjoram
parsley
garlic
eggplant

perennial and self-seeding herbs:

peppermint
chocolate mint
lemon balm
bee balm
meadowsweet
dill
cilantro
oregano
sage
thyme
chamomile
and pots of bay laurel and rosemary

This year we also have or had:

radishes
sweet potatos
spinach
beets
chard
beans
artichokes (though I have to say they don't taste good - Maryland is not good artichoke-growing country)

various other herbs, some of which are just ornamental:

meadowsweet
valerian
hyssop
horehound
feverfew
catnip
catmint
elecampane
echinacea
creeping thyme

and six young blueberry bushes, only 2 of which are producing, and one red currant, not yet producing.

[RedCloud]

30. Another impressive array.

I think red currants are not as productive as black currants. That or they attract birds to their brighter colors.

[underpants]

31. Tomatoes I swear to god they are tomatoes

:bounce: