I LOVE VEGETABLE GARDENS! That is, those of the low maintenance type. For those who have NOT been following, I grew "A little of everything" in our garden last year. I came to the conclusion that a LARGE "traditional" vegetable garden is WAY too much work. But from my few successes, I learned that I was MORE than willing to get my LITTLE guys to produce, but once they did, it became too much work. This is where perennials came in.
My little guys are just little sprouts right now, but supposedly the ones I am growing grow and produce within a year. We will see, but I will NOT make any recommendations until they produce and we are able to taste :)
Monday, February 6, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Tough Plants for weed and bug infested land
When we moved into our rental home, I specifically chose this one due to it's weed filled, unkept yard. I knew when I asked the landlord to tear it up he would have NO problem with it! I planted a "traditional" garden, and between every bug on the planet, and every weed trying to take over, a few select veggies survived and even THRIVED!
We got a great yield from these plants:
soy beans
green beans
hot peppers
lettuce
cilantro
strawberries (so far!)
If you move to land and you are unsure about what would grow, my advice would be to try a bit of everything! My tomatoes, squash, and pumpkins were near a total failure, but if I planted my entire plot with hot peppers, soy beans, lettuce, and strawberries, it would have been a feast of a harvest! I HIGHLY recommend these plants to anyone.
I bought my strawberries in a pack of 4. 2 died when they were transferred, but the 2 soon replanted themselves so a short 4 months later I have 6 plants! We are just starting to get little strawberries!
We got a great yield from these plants:
soy beans
green beans
hot peppers
lettuce
cilantro
strawberries (so far!)
If you move to land and you are unsure about what would grow, my advice would be to try a bit of everything! My tomatoes, squash, and pumpkins were near a total failure, but if I planted my entire plot with hot peppers, soy beans, lettuce, and strawberries, it would have been a feast of a harvest! I HIGHLY recommend these plants to anyone.
I bought my strawberries in a pack of 4. 2 died when they were transferred, but the 2 soon replanted themselves so a short 4 months later I have 6 plants! We are just starting to get little strawberries!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Perennial foodtopia
Due to my unsuccessful gardening season, I have decided I don't need to work harder, I need to work SMARTER!!!!
So I decided to go with perennials. Even if 2-3 are successful this year, I will have 2-3 food products for YEARS with very little work.
I didn't go this way initially because we are in a rental home, but I still chose to plant a few perennials anyway. After very little work but a lot of seeds, I have 4 moringa oleifera plants THRIVING with no additional work and just occasional watering. They don't seem to be bothered by pests, and are very nutritious. We planted them just 4 months ago, and there is one that is already 4 feet tall!!!!
I am so proud of my little trees! To me, these guys were a TOTAL SUCCESS! 4 trees will meet many of our family of 6's nutritional needs while we are here, and I will be sure to root cuttings from these trees when we move so we can bring them with us. These trees are extremely useful trees!
I will never give up my garden because of failures. Because with my HUGE failure has come one success.
That being said, I am moving to perennials. My requirements for my new challenge are simple:
fruits in under 2 years
perennial
good reported taste
can be grown in containers
This eliminates MANY mainstream fruits and veggies. I found a few fruits though that met my criteria, and I placed my order.
White raisin bush
Goji berry
Red Mulberry
Pigeon Pea
Tree tomato
Aunt MOlly's Ground cherry
SIerra Leone Ground cherry
Dwarf Pomegranate
Cocona
Walking onion
I didn't count the moringa. These are already growing and thriving. Once I line my fence with successful perennials, I will work on my garden again. There is definitely enough for 50-75 bushes along our fenceline, which will give us a LOT of food for little money and work. It is definitely the world's cheapest food!!!!!
So I decided to go with perennials. Even if 2-3 are successful this year, I will have 2-3 food products for YEARS with very little work.
I didn't go this way initially because we are in a rental home, but I still chose to plant a few perennials anyway. After very little work but a lot of seeds, I have 4 moringa oleifera plants THRIVING with no additional work and just occasional watering. They don't seem to be bothered by pests, and are very nutritious. We planted them just 4 months ago, and there is one that is already 4 feet tall!!!!
I am so proud of my little trees! To me, these guys were a TOTAL SUCCESS! 4 trees will meet many of our family of 6's nutritional needs while we are here, and I will be sure to root cuttings from these trees when we move so we can bring them with us. These trees are extremely useful trees!
I will never give up my garden because of failures. Because with my HUGE failure has come one success.
That being said, I am moving to perennials. My requirements for my new challenge are simple:
fruits in under 2 years
perennial
good reported taste
can be grown in containers
This eliminates MANY mainstream fruits and veggies. I found a few fruits though that met my criteria, and I placed my order.
White raisin bush
Goji berry
Red Mulberry
Pigeon Pea
Tree tomato
Aunt MOlly's Ground cherry
SIerra Leone Ground cherry
Dwarf Pomegranate
Cocona
Walking onion
I didn't count the moringa. These are already growing and thriving. Once I line my fence with successful perennials, I will work on my garden again. There is definitely enough for 50-75 bushes along our fenceline, which will give us a LOT of food for little money and work. It is definitely the world's cheapest food!!!!!
Mini foodtopia was NOT a success!
Mini-foodtopia was full of learning experiences! Most of them are NOT positive! After throwing every seed under the sun into the ground, and watering and weeding for weeks, the only thing I feel great about is thanks to me there are going to be a hundred butterflies around the house. Caterpillars ate through nearly every vegetable I grew!
On a brighter note, my jalapenos are doing great, and so is the lettuce. The beans and green beans did just OK. I have to say, if I put it ALL together and made them into meals for our family, we would have 1-2 meals. The pumpkins and tomatoes got demolished by caterpillars, and unfortunately, I do not have time to pick caterpillars off one by one for hours on end.
The corn's growth was stunted. Not many successes anywhere... which brings me to my next mission and my next post...
On a brighter note, my jalapenos are doing great, and so is the lettuce. The beans and green beans did just OK. I have to say, if I put it ALL together and made them into meals for our family, we would have 1-2 meals. The pumpkins and tomatoes got demolished by caterpillars, and unfortunately, I do not have time to pick caterpillars off one by one for hours on end.
The corn's growth was stunted. Not many successes anywhere... which brings me to my next mission and my next post...
Saturday, October 22, 2011
soybeans???!!!!! Already???!!!
Today, we picked our first radish and ate it (this was planted at the same time as everything else. As I had said before, I threw a little of everything in there to see what would grow. I CAN say that in sandy soil that all of my beans (and peas!), vines, and corn are doing extremely well. In fact, our soy beans have pods, and our vines are flowering! Our vines are so large, they are taking over the bed!
As they grow out of the marked beds, I move them onto the "grass" where they won't interfere with the other growing plants in the bed.
As our yard is so small and full of weeds, I opted for a weed whacker instead of a lawn mower. After all, it is a rental, so my only interest is in maintaining it as is. I do believe I am going to rake the cuttings, heat them up enough to kill the seeds once it dries, and use it as a groundcover for the next season.
As they grow out of the marked beds, I move them onto the "grass" where they won't interfere with the other growing plants in the bed.
As our yard is so small and full of weeds, I opted for a weed whacker instead of a lawn mower. After all, it is a rental, so my only interest is in maintaining it as is. I do believe I am going to rake the cuttings, heat them up enough to kill the seeds once it dries, and use it as a groundcover for the next season.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
My update on mini foodtopia
It has been about a week since I planted minifoodtopia. I can tell you in the sandy soil we have with a few bags of potting soil added, of the 4 sisters, the beans and corn are thriving. In the front, a few amaranth and quinoa seem to have made it, and 2 of the 4 strawberry plants have made it.
The last bed, with the tomatoes and lettuce and moringa, seems to be struggling quite a bit. A few things are sprouting, but I am unable to identify many, and in a few weeks may identify them as just weeds.
The middle bed has yet to be planted. I planted our herbs in Dixie cups, and put them in our small, protected greenhouse, but they did not do well. We had 1 storm, and I think most of them were flooded.
In light of all this, today I spent the entire day replanting new seeds, this time in the paper towel method. This seems so much easier, and you have the ability to only plant what has already sprouted.
I figure I will let them sprout, and then use rolls of toilet paper and rolled up regular paper to mark the little guys in bed 2, and pull everything on the outside of those tiny tubes.
I will use the same method for the places in beds 1 and 3 that are bare for these plants.
I am also working on adding winecaps and oyster mushrooms this week. They will be housed under our wood porch, which is about 4 feet above the ground. We took some leftover pieces of wood from the garden bed to build the small mushroom spaces under the porch. As expensive as mushrooms are, from what I have read, winecap mushrooms and oysters are the easiest to grow.
The last bed, with the tomatoes and lettuce and moringa, seems to be struggling quite a bit. A few things are sprouting, but I am unable to identify many, and in a few weeks may identify them as just weeds.
The middle bed has yet to be planted. I planted our herbs in Dixie cups, and put them in our small, protected greenhouse, but they did not do well. We had 1 storm, and I think most of them were flooded.
In light of all this, today I spent the entire day replanting new seeds, this time in the paper towel method. This seems so much easier, and you have the ability to only plant what has already sprouted.
I figure I will let them sprout, and then use rolls of toilet paper and rolled up regular paper to mark the little guys in bed 2, and pull everything on the outside of those tiny tubes.
I will use the same method for the places in beds 1 and 3 that are bare for these plants.
I am also working on adding winecaps and oyster mushrooms this week. They will be housed under our wood porch, which is about 4 feet above the ground. We took some leftover pieces of wood from the garden bed to build the small mushroom spaces under the porch. As expensive as mushrooms are, from what I have read, winecap mushrooms and oysters are the easiest to grow.
Friday, September 23, 2011
interplanting and companion planting plans- my garden sampler
I am trying to get as MUCH out of my 3 small beds as possible!!!! I have interplanted and companion planted everything! But my whole thing is pushing the bar and see what comes up! I will keep my blog updated on how each thing is doing, but I wanted to let all my readers know what I have decided to companion plant.
bed 1 is split in half. This bed is half sunflowers, corn, and beans. That being said, the corn is of one kind, as are the sunflowers. The beans are mixed between a few sample varieties, and soybeans. Now, there have been a lot of people that say pole beans, a lot that say bush beans... I went with Bush beans, as I was planting at the same time and did not want them to smother the corn.
The other half was planted with amaranth and quinoa. I interplanted these two with radishes and carrots. I figured that radish and carrots are companion plants, and the radishes would grow out before the carrots and amaranth/quinoa needed the space.
THEN!!!! yea, I added more... I planted a few squash, watermelon, pumpkin, and melon seeds randomly around the bed...
We will see what grows and what doesn't from this bed. I figured if I overpacked it, whatever will not grow in our soil won't grow, but I should get something! I don't think I have much to lose by doing this.
In bed 2, that has yet to be planted, and for good reason- this is the bed I am relying on to produce this season. I am going to plant this one with started plants (more on bed 2 later).
In bed 3, the little bed, it is another experimental bed- mostly! In this bed, I planted a hedge of moringa trees(against a fence), and in the remaining bed, I planted tomatoes and cucumbers in back (as companions), and various lettuces in front.
So beds one and three are purely experimental in many ways for me... it will tell me what will produce well in my little microclimate, and what won't.
OVERCOMING THE ODDS: The girl next door told me that she never bothered to have a garden because "nothing grows here". While I know this is wrong, the question is, in such a tough climate (hot, humid, rainy, then dry) what will grow? That is what these two beds are going to tell me(hopefully). I want to amend the soil the way I would if it were my own home. I just want to cut our bills. In fact, if tomatoes were the only thing that grew I would be totally happy! I would just plant only tomatoes the next season and my family would be having every thing from tomato soup to tomato sauce to tomato salad... we will update you on the status of our little garden as it comes along.
bed 1 is split in half. This bed is half sunflowers, corn, and beans. That being said, the corn is of one kind, as are the sunflowers. The beans are mixed between a few sample varieties, and soybeans. Now, there have been a lot of people that say pole beans, a lot that say bush beans... I went with Bush beans, as I was planting at the same time and did not want them to smother the corn.
The other half was planted with amaranth and quinoa. I interplanted these two with radishes and carrots. I figured that radish and carrots are companion plants, and the radishes would grow out before the carrots and amaranth/quinoa needed the space.
THEN!!!! yea, I added more... I planted a few squash, watermelon, pumpkin, and melon seeds randomly around the bed...
We will see what grows and what doesn't from this bed. I figured if I overpacked it, whatever will not grow in our soil won't grow, but I should get something! I don't think I have much to lose by doing this.
In bed 2, that has yet to be planted, and for good reason- this is the bed I am relying on to produce this season. I am going to plant this one with started plants (more on bed 2 later).
In bed 3, the little bed, it is another experimental bed- mostly! In this bed, I planted a hedge of moringa trees(against a fence), and in the remaining bed, I planted tomatoes and cucumbers in back (as companions), and various lettuces in front.
So beds one and three are purely experimental in many ways for me... it will tell me what will produce well in my little microclimate, and what won't.
OVERCOMING THE ODDS: The girl next door told me that she never bothered to have a garden because "nothing grows here". While I know this is wrong, the question is, in such a tough climate (hot, humid, rainy, then dry) what will grow? That is what these two beds are going to tell me(hopefully). I want to amend the soil the way I would if it were my own home. I just want to cut our bills. In fact, if tomatoes were the only thing that grew I would be totally happy! I would just plant only tomatoes the next season and my family would be having every thing from tomato soup to tomato sauce to tomato salad... we will update you on the status of our little garden as it comes along.
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