I've had a vegetable garden for over 30 years

Personally, I think it's a bit of a waste, but I enjoy it too.

I just spent $100 on plants, another $50 on dirt and mulch and will likely spend another $100+ on fencing/pesticides etc to keep the parasites et al out...All this to grow veggies I can buy for a week at the grocery from Mejico for a buck or two.

Anyway, I love me peppers...particularly Jalepenos, but also milder ones like Aneheim and other thinner lighter green ones. I haven't had much luck with bell peppers.

I also love me some sqash. Spaghetti, yellow, green are all good and seem to do pretty well.

Celebrity tomatoes seem to do best here. I'm trying some Romas this year too.

I've grown onions, carrots, and green beans from seeds. I find the green beans come out better than the others, but out of a dozen plants, I can only get a few casseroles out of them a year.

Anyway, good topic Biggie!

 

We grow various tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. We call it our "salsa" garden. I am a long way from my roots of having gardens that comprise multiple acres, but I don't have to grow all of my own food anymore, either.... Oh, and all of ours come from seed. Many generations of them based on what I got from my mom many years ago from our original "legacy" seeds.

 

Yes gardening is fun, enjoying the TRUE organic produce is even better.

I have a hard time with store bought tomatoes, look pretty but have no flavour, grow a bunch and make batches of tomato sauce in the fall, freeze for quick and easy thaw throughout the winter. Also grow hot peppers, like Thai as they are hot but not insane like ghost peppers

Since ya'asked...
Do a bit of everything. Green & yellow beans, blanch and freeze but never as good as fresh. Snow / sugar peas, great to snack on while working in the garden & produce all year. Typical root veggies which are my favorite, beets, carrots. Dutch onions as they last the winter in the basement. Yukongold potatoes, best with the skin on.

Like motorcycle riding, its a great pastime.

 

Funny you should mentio that Biggy! My wife and I have a garden center and I have worked in the industry with green houses nursuryies and sod farms most of my adult life! There is not anything that taste better than home grown vegies!

 

I use these, I used to raise calves. My garden was either too wet or too dry, too dry was easy but too wet wasn't. One day in the barn looking for something I looked at these feed trough's and it clicked, been useing three now for 5 yrs, drilled some holes in the bottom and some gravel and then the dirt. Can move t

them with the 4 wheeler too a shade tree if it gets too hot for too many days. And capped the ends with some old tarp, and added uprights and some wire for green beans and taller tomato plants. Can easily be covered for cool nights.

 

There is not anything that taste better than home grown vegies!

Steak.

 

I use these, I used to raise calves. My garden was either too wet or too dry, too dry was easy but too wet wasn't. One day in the barn looking for something I looked at these feed trough's and it clicked, been useing three now for 5 yrs, drilled some holes in the bottom and some gravel and then the dirt. Can move t

them with the 4 wheeler too a shade tree if it gets too hot for too many days. And capped the ends with some old tarp, and added uprights and some wire for green beans and taller tomato plants. Can easily be covered for cool nights.

Great idea.

I wonder if I could pitch that idea on "Shark Tank".

 

Nothing better than a fresh tomato sandwich.

 

Steak.

When my heirloom Brandywines come in, nothing tastes better than 1/2" slice of one of them, 3 strips of bacon, and a hot pepper cut in half stacked on toasted bread with a spread of real mayo.

I "loves" me some steak, but BPT's are eaten twice a day in season.

 

When my heirloom Brandywines come in, nothing tastes better than 1/2" slice of one of them, 3 strips of bacon, and a hot pepper cut in half stacked on toasted bread with a spread of real mayo.

I "loves" me some steak, but BPT's are eaten twice a day in season.

Just don't put a half of one of those Trinidad peppers on there. That'll light your fire!

 

We do the square foot garden in a box stuff. We have about 10 good sized boxes and grow squash, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, onions, peppers, beats. Fresh salsa, tomatoe and cheese sandwhiches, and BLTs are awesome.

 

Space been a significant issue, now using far away roadside fruit and vegetable stands as an excuse for a ride

 

Great idea.

I wonder if I could pitch that idea on "Shark Tank".

Go ahead might go over big, mine don't look as good as these though, mine have been around for awhile, but still work.

 

Beautiful Ohio day.
46 tomato plants and 69 pepper plants are now in the ground, caged or staked.
About 1/2 way done.
Tomorrow is supposed to be just as nice so I'll try and finish up then.
My back has been giving me fits or I'd already be done.

Going for a ride right now.

I'm always looking for improved methods of planting tomatoes and peppers, so if anyone has a tried and true supplement they add while planting, I'm all ears.

I use oyster shell, bone meal, 10-10-10, dried egg shells, and Epson Salts.

 

Biggie, granite dust & blood meal is also good, But have you ever tried "SONIC-BLOOM" ??????, I've never tried it yet myself (mainly because I dont have the time to garden), but I told a few friends about it who were really into home Organic Gardens-who knew WAY more about growing than I did, and they have bigger yields-that grew faster-and produced better flavor. One of the guys was a little "PISSED" at me , cause he was a fanatic organic gardener, and here's me-telling him about a system, that produced WAY BETTER results than his "ORGANIC. FRENCH INTENSIVE-BIO DYNAMIC SYSTEM" , anyway check it out, www.sonicbloom.com BTW, I love peppers too, anheims-jalapeno's-thai's, but do you ACTUALLY eat ghost peppers??????, I cant imagine any body eating those, their like a million times hotter than Habeneros, I must be a wuss-cause I cant eat those (habeneros)and I wouldnt even attempt the ghosts!!!!!!

 

Your link doesn't provide any additional information.
It says that this domain name may be for sale?

As far as me growning Ghost Peppers this year, it is just a novelty pepper as far as I'm concerned.
I have heard that you could add 1/4 of a pepper to a pot of chili.
I know I'll play around with it a little.

There's actually a Cookbook with lots of recipes.
http://www.firehousepantrystore.com/cookingwithnapalm.html

I've been making Habanero/Jalapeno salsa for years that I'm the only one who will eat it.
During the season I make it fresh and then I also "can" it (put up in quart jars).
When I can it, I use 10 times the amount of peppers and it's still not as hot as when it's fresh.

Habanero jelly is also good.

 

Living back in the woods we dont' have anyplace that gets a lot of sun but I finally found a patch that gets maybe 5 hours of direct sun and is inside the fence wih the dogs so the deer, ***** and rabbits dont' get any proceeds before I do. Threw out 9 tomato plants and 4 peppers just to see how they do with this little sun... unfortunately I think the 'maters caught a late frost week before last but we'll see if they can pull out of it... which reminds me, I need to grab a fresh bag of 12-12-12 while I'm out tomorrow...
Bigfoot, I like hot food but most of those are WAY too hot though... Though I can imagine the warmer Japalonos in some pico de gallo over the grilled carnitas tacos I made for lunch today....

 

Living back in the woods we dont' have anyplace that gets a lot of sun but I finally found a patch that gets maybe 5 hours of direct sun and is inside the fence wih the dogs so the deer, ***** and rabbits dont' get any proceeds before I do. Threw out 9 tomato plants and 4 peppers just to see how they do with this little sun... unfortunately I think the 'maters caught a late frost week before last but we'll see if they can pull out of it... which reminds me, I need to grab a fresh bag of 12-12-12 while I'm out tomorrow...
Bigfoot, I like hot food but most of those are WAY too hot though... Though I can imagine the warmer Japalonos in some pico de gallo over the grilled carnitas tacos I made for lunch today....

Grilled Jalapeno's are another favorite of mine in the fall.

While on a trip in Southern Utah I stopped at an outdoor restaurant in the middle of nowhere that featured large steaks.
Nothing but bikers.

The guy cooking the steaks on the outdoor grill was a Navaho Indian who knew his stuff and he asked me if I wanted a grilled Mucho Nacho Jalapeno to complement my steak.
Deliciously hot.
I've been a huge fan of that variety ever since.

 

Finally had time to till the garden today. My wife was thrilled. I do green beans (awesome canned with onions!) Pea pods, leaf lettuce, radishes, cukes for pickles, some squash and a few peppers, jalapeos...radishes...carrots... You never know what I might add this year.

Sooo much better than the mass produced junk at the store.

What do you guys do for weed control? Anyone use landscape cloth? I used carpet one year....it held the moisture in nice and kept the weeds out....but boy, did that look totally *******!!

 

bigfoot, try this site www.dancarlsonsonicbloom.com , the other site goes to some site-for-sale website ,but when I goggled it it worked,?????,try this new site it works. BTW, love that title "COOKING WITH NAPALM".

 

Beautiful Ohio day.
46 tomato plants and 69 pepper plants are now in the ground, caged or staked.
About 1/2 way done.
Tomorrow is supposed to be just as nice so I'll try and finish up then.
My back has been giving me fits or I'd already be done.

Going for a ride right now.

I'm always looking for improved methods of planting tomatoes and peppers, so if anyone has a tried and true supplement they add while planting, I'm all ears.

I use oyster shell, bone meal, 10-10-10, dried egg shells, and Epson Salts.

Skeeter here. I'm a former WV Hillbilly well versed in the art of maters. I typically use very little fertilizer at all until the fruiting starts, maybe a pinch of something high nitrogen (high first number), but not a handfull. When the maters are about the size of my balls, I mix a good generous handfull food in the top couple inches of dirt with a stick, about 5-10" off the stalk. Don't put the food on the root ball. You want it just beside the bulk of the roots so the plant can reach out to it a little. I feed them every other month or until one of the green ones blush, then I stop.

For food, I'd go with 10-10-10 also if I had some, but if I could find something with less nitrogen to phosphorous ratio I'd go with it..something like 10-50-10 or 15-30-15 if your shopping hard core chemicals or the organic stuff is usually lower in concentration like 5-7-3 or something. I do prefer using the organic stuff if I can. Not so much because I'm an organic hippy, though I could use a little less chemicals in me, but more because organic ferts won't burn-up my plants when my drunk a$$ is out there spilling it every where...or double feeding like an idoit.

Good luck with the gardens! I'm a little lazy and a little late for maters down here in Florida this cycle.....

 

Skeeter here. I'm a former WV Hillbilly well versed in the art of maters. I typically use very little fertilizer at all until the fruiting starts, maybe a pinch of something high nitrogen (high first number), but not a handfull. When the maters are about the size of my balls, I mix a good generous handfull food in the top couple inches of dirt with a stick, about 5-10" off the stalk. Don't put the food on the root ball. You want it just beside the bulk of the roots so the plant can reach out to it a little.

For food, I'd go with 10-10-10 also if I had some, but if I could find something with less nitrogen to phosphorous ratio I'll go with it..something like 10-50-10 or 15-30-15 if your shopping hard core chemicals or the organic stuff is usually lower in concentration like 5-7-3 or something. I do prefer using the organic stuff if I can. Not so much because I'm an organic hippy, though I could use a little less chemicals in me, but more because organic ferts won't burn-up my plants when my drunk a$$ is out there spilling it every where...or double feeding like an idoit.

Good luck with the gardens! I'm a little lazy and a little late for maters down here in Florida this cycle.....

You mention nitrogen and I am here to tell you, as a reloader for quite some time, any old gunpowder will supercharge the growth. At about $14/lb for the cheap stuff, it's really no more expensive than some of the feed sprays and works multiple times over better. Only takes a little at a time. Couple grains per plant goes a long, long way out of a lb of powder.

 

What do you guys do for weed control?

Catch em early.

Use a hoe every couple of days to scrape the weeds, have to get on hands and knees once a week for the month of June. By mid July things are hotter and drier which keeps the weeds at bay.

 

What do you guys do for weed control? Anyone use landscape cloth?

No chemicals in the food garden.
"Preen" in the flower gardens.

I used landscape cloth one year and didn't like it.
I couldn't figure out a good way to anchor it down.
A groundhog or something got a hold of one end and basically destroyed an entire row of tomatoes.

The wife and I simply yank them up early and often.
Once the vegetable plants get bigger, they keep the weeds down due to lack of sunlight hitting the ground.

I've always found it interesting (infuriating) that weeds grow at least twice as fast as my vegetable plants.

About 10 years ago I started mounding my rows to about a foot higher than ground level.
That made it a lot easier on my back to pull the weeds.

 

bigfoot, try this site www.dancarlsonsonicbloom.com

OK, the gist of this audio device is to replicate the sound of crickets and birds singing and flapping their wings which makes the plants happy, happy, happy.

I have 17 bird feeders in my yard.
My plants must be the happiest plants in the neighborhood.

I listened to the demonstration video of the sounds produced and if one of my neighbors were to shoot it with a shotgun I couldn't blame them.