Many Turning to Home Gardening — minus the dirt

Holy Grow Lights in the Basement, Batman!

WT
 
I have tried those Tree Tomatoes, and the upside-down inna Lampshade stuff too ... and even tried some Hydroponic stuff ... forty years ago ....... The thing that sticks out in my memory is, that all of them were tasteless ... Pretty, firm, BIG, juicy, but completely tasteless ... I still much prefer the ones that come out of my Victory Garden out back of the House ...  We still make Tomato Preserves around my place, cuz Smuckers is the only commercial producer(far as I know) and none of the local Grocery Stores ever orders it, so we make our own ... And when my Uncle Edgar was alive, he usta make some out standin' Tomato Wine ... but it never did work with any of those "Scientifically" Grown fruit ... 
And GROW LITES, do seem to work well for Herbs in the House ...(the kind you cook with) but when I walk into the Kitchen late at nite, it always makes me think of the Barber Shop ...  Y'all DO remember Barber Shops, don'tcha???  I know Wille T   does .......

 Jalopkin,

God bless you, my wife almost had me convinced to try the upside-down tomato.
Our opinion is that if thorny roses are not bunny resistant, nothing else would stand a chance out in our yard.

Tomatoes grown in my family's garden were always welcome bartering products.
The "soil," a mixture of coffee grounds; egg shells; fish guts; kitchen waste and horse apples was perfect as was the sunlight filtered through a towering elm.

We often visit the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan and though heritage tomatoes and apples are sometimes available, the are generally so gnarly, mottled, discolored and un-peelable, that we choose something more useful.

Our tomatoes were so good that a lot of them were eaten while their picker still stood in the garden. Don't you wonder though if being young, tanned, taut, poor, pure and HUNGRY had a lot to do with it?

 

good river bottom dirt here.  the kind you turn and it looks like a really good brownie, sandy loamy and wonderful. 
 
tasha tudor mindset with a mix of  "the art of french vegatble gardening" by louisa jones.
 
 

the grow light basement and closet plants grow naturally along and beside the river here. 

have found through the years that it's best for everyone involved to stick to flowers and use the fresh farmers market for veggies.   

hubbie and one of my brothers have a garden project at my brothers that includes, 4 types of potatoes and red onions, two types of carrots.  they call it their pot roast garden. 

we share willing or not, with the coons, deer, rabbits, wild turkeys, beavers (they really like my pink dogwoods?) river otters, and sadly the eagle has been seen with a kitten in their nest.  it's a very balanced kingdom our there. 

i've been silently watching.  from my calculations their going to produce 2 or 3 hundred pounds of potatoes.  should be interesting.  they're getting the tomatoes today to set out. 

you all have a wonderful easter weekend, i'm taking a mare to get an ultra sound.  little baby horses are what i like to grow.

I live 100 miles inland, too high to get the bottomland dirt, along what was a prehistoric beach. Soil is mostly sandy  clay once you get past the leaf litter. I cling to the belief that the dogs discourage the bunny rabbits in their domain, but after 11 years, have still not gotten around to planting back there. I did grow some nice peppers out front one time and may try that again- otherwise it's daylilies and shrubs, with a few dahlias.  Cuukoo, I'd have to speak to those beavers about the pink dogwoods, or let Mr. Mossberg have a word with them.  Stoney, you said "pure". I guess you are going way back, eh?  Happy Easter, y'all. 

I was just about to order the upside down tomato thingy, this one had additional ports for herbs or flowers, and hang them on my front porch.  Perhaps I'll hold off....hubby has drafted me to dig some big holes in the back yard for tomatoes - maybe after that I'll be too tired to call the plant catalog.
 
Luckily, we don't have a lot of furry garden predators - just the slimy kind that beer and salt take care of.  Ugh.

I knew a guy with a big hydroponic farm near my parents home.  He grew lettuces which were a welcome change from cross country iceburgs but still were lacking.  The sun is out and the temp is approaching 40 so it will be a good day to get some things done outside, maybe even plant a couple things.  Nights are still cold. 
The other day I was going through one seed catalog or another and saw the listing for Organic Yukon Gold Seed Potatos, $8.99/lb. plus shipping.  I had just finished cooking the last of a two pound bag I picked up in the store for $2.99, which came complete with eyes.  If anyone would like to buy Organic Yukon Gold seed potatos I will get a few bags and put them in the garage to sprout and offer them for only.....

unhinged...take care when using sprouted grocery store potatoes for seed. The first time I tried potatoes in the garden, many years ago, I used pantry leftovers. I did't get a very good yield, and had trouble with scab. The reason I plant CERTIFIED seed potatoes, is they are certified disease free. Also, some grocery store types are treated to prevent sprouting. I usually plant red, white and blue potatoes. Makes a funny 4th of July potatos salad. 
To me 8.99 is a bargin for 50+ pounds of exotic heirloom potatoes. BTY, I have switched to using boxes made of recycled plastic for my potatoes. I use the old soil from the patio containes, enriched with compost etc. These boxes can be reused many years, and I feel that I'm helping the environment be actually USING a product made from recycled materials. I then rotate fall/winter salad greens into the boxes at the end of summer. Make sure you change the soil the next potato season to minimize disease. The Boxes also make it easy to youe bug proof row cover on the potato plants so as to avoid the use of chemical peaticides.( Colorado potatoe beetle etc)

Pesticides...

I'm halfway expecting some volunteer tomato plants to come up this summer.  Around here, plants will grow if you dig a hole and show it a PICTURE of the plant.  This is the first year I've ever had garden space, and I'm not entirely sure what to do.  I'll have to ask my dad . . . since he retired, he's become something of a gardening whiz.

I'm proud of every one of y'all. 
 
When we had a 'real' yard (with our 'real' house), we tried repeatedly but never with success  to grow tomatoes.  Flowers there, and here in our tiny rectangle on soil, flourish, and I'm pondering trying tomatoes in a planter that'll fit on my wheeled round plastic 'holders,' or whatever they call them, for even I can move those around--to get the best sunlight. Question only of persuading the spouse to do the heavu lifting I can't -- to get it all started.  Even here in the small condo, I've been mulching like mad, and the dirt loves it! I can tell by excited responses of everything in The Rectangle -- herbs to bushes to flowers.
 
Mike, I hope my prognostication that women would look beyond the ends of their noses has come true.  And now you're out creating new life in your yard; where ARE their brains?  Love your 'just show it a picture of a plant and it grows.' Of volunteer plants, while our house was under construction years ago, workers must've enjoyed watermelon, because that autumn a volunteer vine appeared.  Finally I harvested it Hallowe'en day, fearing Trick-or-Treaters would, that night. It was the sweetest, best watermelon ever I tasted.
 
Going out to mulch -- Willie's sounds just like mine, so I must be doing something right.

We might argue against Thursday as the new Friday and 50 as the new 40, but anyone who has been grocery shopping lately WILL tell you 12oz is the new pound and 6oz is the new cup.

sorry....posted on the wrong day.....i guess i am the class idiot.

To the best of my knowledge, tomatoes are the ONLY food clinically proven by well-done studies to extend life. It's related to the lycopenes that they contain.
 
There are of course suspicions that foods such as olives, acai fruit, red grapes, broccoli and spinach may do the same. Proof, however, is wanting.
 
Doc Nolan: Did you ever eat at a Houston restauarant called Mark's? It was a former church converted into a restaurant, with wine bottles gloriously racked in front of the puplit's stained glass. They had an interesting contract arrangement to have a really incredible name-brand and proprietarily-grown variety of tomato shipped in during season. You could order a sliced tomato of that kind as an appetizer---expensive, but quite worth the dollars.

mark....might thet be Hanover tomatoes?

STONEY:
 
"Young, Tanned, Taut, Poor, Pure, and Hungry"  Good God Man, you have led an Epic Life ...   I have never been nor experienced any of those things, but life has been good, and NEVER boring ...  And I do remember, with great appreciation, (back in the days when I still had hair) that very compost combination you recalled, and the humongous Beefsteak and Big Boy Tomatoes we got from it ... like Softballs they were ... We don't do badly nowadays either, and we grow also every kind of Pepper that God ever put on the earth ... We use a lot of Peppers in Southwestern Cuisine, and even tho' there are Peppers IN  the Meskin Food, we have a bowl on Jalapenos on the table to eat alongside ...  Whatever has been stripped out of the soil over the years, doubles right back down into the soil with application of some good compost, and the burying of a few junk fish in the field ... if we plant a few Zinnias in and around the fruit plants, it helps to keep away the Bugs and Birds, and every now and then, we hang some Tin Can lids on a string so's the wind can bat them around, and that spooks the birds too ... We have discovered over the years that Birds that eat Jalapeno seeds can do some purdy awful damage to a Candy Apple Paint Job ... Got a buddy in a little place called, Margaretville , New York who Hot-Houses a lot of his own Produce, including Peppers and Tomatoes ... and he has been successfully composting for years ... His Produce has done well even tho' his area is heavily wooded and sunlight is a thin commodity ...
 
Stoney, you have really put me to think !!!   Y'all enjoy your weekend !!!
 
Ivan Jalopkin

By The Way, Stoney .......
 
Mr. Mossberg and Mr. Benelli can help out with your Rabbit Control, and they go purdy good in the pot too ....... If you have enough clearance arround you, a good .22 will do , and you don't hafta worry about pickin' pellets out of your teeth .......

And if you don't have enough downrange clearance, get a .22 that drops inside of a hundred yards - deadly to bunnies, harmless to anything bigger - an RWS 54 "Air King" Diana. I call it the Versailles Special. After the Treaty of Versailles was inked, the Germans weren't allowed to have anything, nothing at all, that even rhymed with "firearm". SO the Germans, being the bloody-minded sorts that we/they are, perfected the spring-work pellet rifle. They are a wee bit pricey, but you won't be sorry about the expense by the second or third pot of stew...

A garden without dirt is like sex without... scratch that (but privately please)... is like a flower without a scent, shoes that got no heels, a car without wheels, a sail without wind, a train without rails.....

For me the digging in the earth and the planting of seeds, bulbs, plants with long, tangled roots is the best part; easily as rewarding as enjoying the harvest.

As Stoney is wont to say; it isn't springtime unless you can smell the dirt.

I even enjoy whatever new aches my body may feel after working in the garden and the yard. I think it reinforces my sense of belonging and accomplishment. I love scraping the dirt and mud off of my shoes, from beneath my finger nails. I smile like a fool when my reflection shows evidence of all the places I have I have touched, scratched or wiped the sweat from my face.

I think that the act of digging into the earth anchors me to it, keeps me from just floating away.

Anyroads..... enjoy the weekend as much as possible..... peace out

Holy frijole, Twinkie Boy! That's some 'spensive gun you shootin'...
I've always gardened. There was a time I had a farm in Heber Springs, grew mountains of taties and corn and pinto beans, peppers and maters and just about evathang. I canned, dried, preserved, from desire and necessity. I also heated with wood and cooked on a wood-fired stove, and I had my very own cute lil McCullough chainsaw. It's amazing what you can coax from a half-acre truck patch.
I'm still deciding where my garden will go in here at Lakeview Cottage. Time will tell. I'm a little concerned about the rabbits living in the brushpile, but we'll come to some sort of understanding, I feel sure...
 

I used to think Thai ice fields were very cool... the fish lived in the water along with the bugs... the rice dropped into the water... and the people ate fish and rice.  I'm trying to imagine hydroponically-grown rice and fish swimming around the racks (like in a pet store?) Gardening in three-dimensional spaces is a a strange place in one's mind!

My backyard is a safe haven for rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks and all manner of fine feathered friends even though they eat the tops off of tulips, sunflowers, and I have never, ever been able to harvest a single ear of sweet corn. I think that this is due to the fact that when growing up, anything that wasn't a rat was considered to be an exotic animal to be marveled upon

They do leave the tomatoes, potatoes and carrots alone... knock on dirt.

Peter, we have a few little creatures here.  Last year my wife planted a bunch of Morning Glory seedling by the deck posts and we strung up a trellis.  The plants were gnawed right up until they reached two feet high, from there they took off.  They actually ate zuchini last year, the damn fools.  I could shoot the poor little buggers but the garden is on the hillside and down below is regular suburbia instead of condo complex suburbia.  I could hit one the the household below who we affectionately refer to as the Simms.  So the tree rats, as my fathers cousin in law from Scotland refered to them live on.  Hopefully with good stomach aches most of the summer.
 
Two rubbermaid container loads of aging horse dung from the stable today, a few more and the garden will be complete, well with a little lime, greensand and phosphorus.  Note to self, we can afford and if we cleaned out the garage we would have a place for a truck, but no, a british convertable or german sports car would fill that before we could find a truck.  Leave the garage full of things that truly belong there, like table saws, bikes, barbies and years of Fine Woodworking and Knitting Magazine, etc.
 
Georgia, wishing you peace in these terrible times but secretly wondering if you have seen John Daly's Winnebago.  Should be an interesting day tomorrow. 
 
And a happy Easter to all.

Nothing really to add, just had to brag: Had the first grilled burgers tonight.  Fresh beef from my uncle's herd, charcoal fire, cooked to tasty perfection.  Served on egg-bread rolls, with cheddar and chunky homemade tomato/avocado salsa.   Mmmmmmmmmm