So what is, or is going to be, in your garden this year?

[Reciprocity]

Deep East Texas here. We started late (Feb) this year with the onions but early for all the rest of the garden. We had a freak snow at Easter but everything survived thank the maker.

Summer Garden 2007

Tomatoes

Early Girl
Better Boy
Homestead
Celebrity
Beefsteak
Grape
Lemon Boy
Big Beef
Porter
Gulf State
Mountain Pride
Marglobe
La Roma
Golden Ponderosa
Pineapple
Watermelon Beefsteak
Cuoro De Toro
Lillian Golden Giant

Peppers

Cubanelle
Golden Summer Bell
Red Bell
Gypsy
Cayenne
Serrano
Ancho


Other Veggies

Zucchini
and crookneck squash
Bush Type Cucumber
Black Beauty Eggplant
Anasazi Beans
Purple or Black (can't remember which) Pencil Pod Beans
Onions
Lemongrass
Lettuce
Collard Greens
Corn
Kohlrabi
Rutabaga
sugar snap peas

[bearfan454]

1. Where at in East Texas ?

Mrs bearfan is from Mount Pleasant. I don't have as many varieties of plants in my garden as you have. This is what I have:

16 Cherokee Purple tomato plants
3 Better Boy tomato plants
1 Lemon Boy tomato plant

3 New Mexico Big Jim pepper plants
2 Hot Banana pepper plants
2 Carribean Red pepper plants
1 Garden Salsa pepper plant

20 tomato and 8 pepper plants is plenty to keep me busy for awhile.

[sazemisery]

10. I grew the Garden Salsa pepper last year

Great pepper. Grows quite long and thin. It was a winner.

[KatyaR]

2. I hope to get most of this planted this weekend--cross your fingers!

I'm only able to do container gardening because of living in an apartment. It's always a fine line trying to do everything I want and not getting the apartment manager on my back. So far I've been okay, but every year I wonder when someone will say something.

I went a little crazy trying to start stuff from seed this year. Here's the list:

Riesentrabe tomatoes
Mexico Midget tomatoes
Cupid Hybrid tomatoes
Christmas Grape tomatoes
I'm also trying Micro Tom Tomatoes--they're micro tomatoes and will probably stay in the house in a back window in 4-inch pots.

College 64L mildly hot peppers
Mini Belle Mix sweet bell peppers
Whirligig Zinnias
Eight Ball Zucchini
Burgundy Blanket Flowers
Fairy Tale Eggplant
Bambino eggplant
Rosemary
Cilantro
Oregano
Fino Verde Basil
Scarlett O'Hara Morning Glories
Giant White Moonflowers
Grandpa Ott Morning Glories
Common and garlic chives
Fernleaf dill
Mammoth dill
Red Poppies
Gedera Sunshot sunflowers
Double Dandy sunflowers
Elf Sunflowers
Chianti Sunflowers
Sunny Hybrid Sunflowers
Miss Bateman Clematis
Niobe Clematis

I need to start some Short 'n Sweet and Thumbelina carrots in a big pot as well. I have 2 strawberry pots full of strawberries, and I will need to do a lot of fill in with flowers and such. I'll do that after everything else is in place--otherwise I buy way too much!

I usually wait until the end of the selling season and then buy 4 hanging containers of petunias, lantana, or something like that for the railing. They're usually half price at that point, and I can save some money that way. And I need some more mint--I bought a couple of varieties a little while ago, but I want more, as well as some other herbs, especially a stevia plant. My neighbor kids got a kick out of that last year.

I decided to try some water plants, so I have an 18-gallon Rubbermaid container with water lillies, pond lettuce, and some other plants. And then I have 2 or 3 trays of cacti and succulents I need to pot up and put outdoors.

Wow, I need a helper--I'm glad I don't have a REAL garden!

[NJCher]

3. you sound like you're doing amazing things

With the space you have. A determined gardener will. I know when I lived in a townhouse, I had 65 kinds of herbs growing in a little plot about 15 x 4, plus hanging gardens.

I'm growing lots of heirloom tomatoes this year but I don't have my list handy at the moment. Will post it later.



Cher

[babylonsister]

6. Oh. My. Gosh! All in containers, and a

water garden, too?:wow: You put me to shame! Pls. share pics when you get a chance!

[Reciprocity]

4. I would love to see pictures if any of you all have them.

bearfan454 I live in Lufkin. Did you buy your plants or grow them from seeds? We did both.

fifthgendem I bet you have the loveliest patio in your building. Wow all those vegetables, herbs and flowers you have grown in containers makes my wonder what you could do if you had a traditional garden site.

NJCher we are trying to plant more heirloom as well.

Forgot to mention, my Amish Pie squash plants that I only have two of, but boy howdy do they grow large plants and fruit. They can weigh between 60-80 pounds.

[KatyaR]

7. I've spent most of the afternoon putting stuff in pots, and I'm not even close

to being finished. Man, I'm tired, but it's a good tired. Now I just have to clean up everything and wait until tomorrow to do some more.

I bought my seeds from a variety of places. Many of them are ones I bought last year, but they have produced just as well this year as if they were for the 2007 season. My idea was to start more than I'd need, because I knew some of them wouldn't make it, but more made it than I thought possible--good and bad for me, I guess. My tomatoes need a jump start--I had to bring them in for 2 weeks when the weather took a big dip, and they're still in their first transplant containers--they need some room to grow badly! Unfortunately, I have run out of soil and pots for the day and will have to stop tomorrow on the way home for more.

This doesn't mean I don't buy a lot of plants--oh my, do I ever, but this year I'm hoping that it will be much less than in the past. So far, it's not been too bad, but I haven't made my big trip for flowers yet. I want to wait until I have everything in place before doing that. It'll probably be a few weeks until I do that.

I'm the only person in this entire 70-something unit complex that does anything much with plants. I like living here, but the place looks like some 60s-style motel--it definitely can use some beautifying. The new owners so far don't look to be doing very well in keeping the place fixed up, so I don't know how much longer I'll be here, but for right now, it does just fine.

Here's some photos from past years:











Right now it looks nowhere near this nice, but give me a month, and things will look a lot better. Makes me wish my mom was still around--she was a huge gardener, but I wasn't into gardening like this when she was still alive. It's only been the last few years that I've totally gone off my rocker . . . .

[babylonsister]

5. I'm in AWE! You must have lots of property!

I just plant things that flower, but really don't have a whole lot of room, sadly.
Please share pics when you get a chance!

[LWolf]

8. Manure.

I've spent the last 2 years in my "new" old dump cleaning and repairing. There is still plenty of cleaning and repairing to do, but I can at last turn my attention to a garden.

Last spring I planted 7 fruit trees. This spring I planted 18 deciduous shade trees to add some variety and interest to the ever-present juniper. If I manage to get one more fence repaired, I'll also be putting in some grapes.

This summer I will begin building raised beds and filling them with the abundance of aged manure the place came with; ready to plant next spring.

I can't afford to build all of the beds I want; I'll start with a couple and add a few every year. The first plants that go in will be the perennial herbs.

[sazemisery]

9. Here's whats in my garden

Tomatoes

Early Pick
Roma
Yellow Pear
4th of July
Big Beef
Golden Mama

Peppers

Poblano (Ancho)
Early Jalepeno
Red, Yellow and Orange Bell

Peaches and Cream Corn
Okra
Petite Treat Mini Watermelon
Black Pearl Edamame
Yin Yang beans
Delicata Squash
Sunburst patty pan squash
Painted Lady green beans (butterflies and hummingbirds love the red flowers)

[Reciprocity]

11. Planted more tomatoes today.

Hugh's Yellow
Thai Pink
Manalucie
I do have pictures coming.

[Reciprocity]

12. Some pixs from today before the rain.

[bearfan454]

14. Your garden look super

I'm hoping mine doesn't drown from all this rain.

[Kolesar]

13. Rabbits

Deer, cabbage worms, japanese beetles, slugs, kids ... :evilgrin:

[spinbaby]

15. I just bought rhubarb

Two lovely plants going in tonight. So far, in the veggie garden, I have potatoes, sweet onions, garlic, lettuce, snap peas, and daikon.

[Reciprocity]

16. We planted 68 more tomatoes today, they were......

Pink Ponderosa
San Marzano
Tomcat
Teton de Venus

[uppityperson]

17. I'm doing my 1st veggie garden in 7 yrs

I am doing a sort of "hobby" garden, for fun, vs a serious garden I have to spend a couple hours a day on. That is the theory.

4 kinds of spuds, red, russet, blue, fingerlings
2 types beans on tripods within the spuds, blue lake and some sort red one that turns green when cooked
broccoli (12, thanks Mr. UP), 4 cauliflowers, 4 brussel sprouts all bought as starts
carrots (dante?)
beets for greens and beets
garlic to braid, elephant garlic, walla walla onions, leeks (spread amongst brassicas to slow down deer/slugs)
varied lettuce, pumpkin, pattypan and crookneck squash
bush snap peas
nasturtiums and marigolds for flowers in amongst the veggies
BIG multicolored sunflowers
EarlyGirl tomato from last yr that we wintered over inside and has 1-2 inch green tomatoes on it already will go back out also.
rhubarb, artichokes
blueberries, highbush cranberries (viburnum) and a ?berry, with borage, aquilegia (columbines) and Giant Arctic (oh heck, what is that flower that spikes, leaves like lambs ears).

Hobby. huh. I can't wait for the seeds to sprout.

[Kolesar]

18. You can reduce the work you have to do with raised beds and heavy mulching

It is probably too late for you to change your garden to "raised beds" if you have already planted. I would note that the raised beds that I put in last year did not need to be spaded or tilled. The soil was loose and airy when I started working on it last week. When I put in seeds or plant starts, I just moved the soil around with a trowel and mixed in a bit of nitrogen-heavy fertilizer.

Mulching with newspaper and then soil or straw to keep weeds down will greatly reduce the weeding you have to do. Last fall's leaves are a good mulch. You can mulch the walkways with corrugated cardboard, too.

[uppityperson]

19. I have raised beds, will mulch, have dug in compost and "mt poop" from chicken run

Thanks for the suggestions, it's funny, my first veggie garden was (oh dear) 26 yrs ago and I'd just heard about this type gardening rather than planting in rows you walked between. I did a couple small gardens, 1 the traditional way, one dug and made into raised beds, mulching, organic garden way. Friends made fun of my OG garden but it way outdid the traditional one. Had a big garden back in the mid-80's, put in lots of horse manure, found an excellent source of leaves (packing a truck bed full a couple times was also quite fun).

When we sold our last house an "OG" was listed as an extra, took me a minute to figure out what the realtor was asking since I just have a hard time comprehending putting chemicals in my veggies.

So, forward 7-8 yrs and I am doing it again. I don't intend of raising all my food, just supplementing, but jeeze, even that can get out of hand. I'm not doing any hot weather things (eggplants, peppers) except The Tomato from Last Year. Maybe next yr.

I didn't get as much dug into it as I wanted this yr, will try to get leaves from the local state park come fall and need to find another horse manure source. "Mt poop" is what we shovel out from the chicken run a few times a yr and pile up. Sand, chicken manure, veggie scraps, really good stuff but heavy to move. It supplements our clay soil well.

I do like digging in the dirt and seeing things coming up. When it gets going, will post a picture too. I've thought about doing the paths in newspaper to keep the weeds down and maybe make the soil beneath a bit softer.

[Kolesar]

20. Have the leeks been effective against slugs before?

I believe that the slugs consumed our carrots last year. We only had a few good carrots.

[uppityperson]

21. I have no idea, never grew them.

I got a bunch from a friend and just stuck them in the ground. Slugs and deer are our main problems, I'll let you know.

[stuntcat]

22. rhubarb!!!

omg I'm G with E! I'd be so pleased with myself if I grew rhubarb.

Maybe I'll work on it this year. What kind of plant did you start with? Does it hold up outside?
I'm new to the gardening so I've killed some things off but I have 3 grapevines and 2 strawberries and 3 blueberry bushes that all made it through winter. And 5 or 6 different herbs coming back up, some just from seeds :headbang: