Perfect garden location

Many times over the last 30 or so years I have been heard saying, I wish I could move where I could have a good garden and grow neat stuff like melons and really good tomatoes and a lot of other things that just won't work here.

I'm not sure I don't already have a pretty ok place when I read of your floods, droughts,,bugs,blight, and hot temp that kills the majority of your work I begin to think maybe It's not so bad here after all.

So what if I have to improvise on mother nature with plastic film ,drip tubing and pipe to over come some of the negatives my site has.

The question is how many of you would move,if you could to a perfect gardening area and where is it?

What would you look for?

I've been thinking about that too. I always thought zone 8 would be the prefect zone? What don't you like about it?

I have been looking at Oregon and that's looking pretty good to me. Almost anything would be better than zone 3/4.

Edited because I'm having a bad grammar day.

This message was edited Sep 27, 2003 5:22 PM

ANYWHERE S.E. (Ga...AL...Fl.panhandle....Carolinas )
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pic shows 3rd cold front in a week that came through here a hour ago...BRrrrrrrr!
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Take Me Awayyyyyy =)

I think we have the best growing season. We only have a few frost days a year and they never last all day (just enough to make the bulbs happy). We can grow squash, tomatoes, etc in the summer and in the winter lettuce, spinach, etc.

The only thing I wish is that I had more room to plant things. On a small suburban lot, I can't get all I would want to grow in it.

JoanJ It's not bad in reality I'm just never satisfied when I can't make it all grow braggin size and quality perfect.

I grew thirty some different items this year and must have given more than a ton away so far and haven't gotten to the squash and punkins.

Cole crops do well as do potatoes,corn,and onions. Tomatoes are really tough for me most years because of all the rain and the blight. Now I grow tomatoes,peppers, and cucumbers in a hoop house. The results were fantistic this year. I left 3 tomatoes in the garden on their own and they are smaller in size, less productive, and not very pretty.

Berries of all types do well as do apples and cherries. I just can't get some things that require heat to grow well here.

No this is not bad it's just you know green grass. Oregon would be a good choice I think .I suppose I would like a longer growing season.Ernie

Scooterbug how cold is your cold front? Thats the thing about this place lots of cool days very few really hot days. This year was the exception 63 days without rain and maybe 10 days in the 80 degree range and today is one of them. Ernie

PS would you really leave the fishing for the tiller and hoe?

KathyT have you gotten into trellis? they work quite well and do conserve space. Cucumbers and some squash will do well on a trellis.I have done the cucs but not the squash that is info from others I think it is true however.

Maybe others will add good trellis choices. Ernie

Well Ernie,
......It's been a steady downslide for the last 2 weeks and it wasn't that hot of an August either.....Could get some snow tuesday :-((
........I really hate the cold & love heat
re: fishin'...crummy weather has been too extreme so I didn't waste my time this year,but I did get a lot done in the yard that I had been putting off for years.
........So ,we pretty happy here now,just got some Tropicana cannas @ 75 % off,and I found an Alocasia Polly at HD clearance isle,now my African Plate alocasia will have a friend ;~D

Believe it or not the good old farmers market is good for information on this subject.
Lots of people move from one area to another or travel to visit relitives, etc.
Anyway we hear all the time about how our corn is better than what they can raise in another location.
One lady from a southern state stated she won't eat watermelon at home because if no flavor.
This is just some of what is said all the time.
My conculsion is you should just make the best of what you can raise where you are and take advantage of all the fresh goodies you can.
Think about all the people that don't garden at all, they never experience that good old homegrown taste!
Happy Gardening!
Bernie

Country Gardens the more I read the more I think I may be there already. Hey I have good dirt unlimited free water and lots of free cow stuff. I can grow most things I like to eat. The climate is maritime not hot, not cold .


Could be I just need to quit working so I have more time to use to the fullest what I have. Regards Ernie

We humans usually want what we can't have. When we lived in western Washington and western Oregon I wished for corn and vine ripened tomatoes. Some years we could grow them but in rainy summers they didn't do well. Southeast Alaska just had cold muskeg, no soil, and no summer at all some years. I was a frustrated gardener there. For a few years we lived in central Oregon where there was an official 89 day growing season, frost could happen any night of the year and all I could reliably grow was root crops and chard. The last 11 years I have a better climate, longer growing season, and while it isn't perfect it is better than any other place I have tried to garden. I grow an early variety of corn, most years planting the first about June 1, 2nd about June 15 and 3rd by the 1st of July. Most years we can have enough off the last planting to make it worth the time and effort. Tomatoes ripen on the vine and we sure enjoy them, although I do ripen a lot of the green ones on a table in the basement for canning after the first hard frost. Root crops do well here too, and I've figured out how to get peas to produce (see a thread on the legumes forum called Volunteer, Surprise Peas). All in all I am quite happy with my part of zone 5. Edited to give correct location and name for the thread. (so much for my memory).

This message was edited Oct 2, 2003 11:21 AM

He everyone, i live in zone 7, Alabama and have all my life. The one thing i done like is the high humidity in the summertime. I am able to grow pretty much what i want to otherwise as long as i can stand the humidity along with the heat. The one thing i have learned is that anywhere we are, we have one problem or another. We just have to enjoy the blessings we have. I have been to Tennessee recently and enjoyed the weather and the area of Gatlinburg alot but i was happy to come home. Robbie

I lived in Fl once and could not keep the soil from
washing away in the hard summer rains. And the bugs
were massive. In va we have to build soil but
once done the seasons are good.

Someone once said about southern California, "Instant paradise, just add water." The winters are paradise, but the summers are more like..., well..., the other place. ;-) Stuff grows like gangbuster any time of the year, though. We fill the city compost trash container every single week and still can't get caught up with the yard waste. Recently we got a second container and fill that one every week now, too. However, I cannot get decent tomatoes.

Kelli send me your excess heat in april and may and I will send you all the tomatoes you could ever use.

It surprises me to hear you can't get decent tomatoes. I thought calif was home to hundreds if not thousands of acres of tomatoes?Ernie

Just because there is lots of acres don't mean they are fit to eat. Just ask any upper midwestern person, November thru July!!
Bernie

April heat isn't usually a problem here, but you can have some of my July, August, September, and October heat. Do you have any rain right now that you can spare? We've gotten about a 1/2 inch at my house since last spring.

I have a lot of trouble with spider mites killing my tomato plants. I won't spray my food with nasty chemicals and the more organic controls don't work. I also have problems with sunscald and splitting. Maybe I need to grow plastic tomatoes like the commercial growers do. Then again, maybe not. ;-)

California is a big state, with many climate zones. I don't know where all tomatoes are grown commercially, but in my general area, they are grown near the coast, where the temperatures are more stable and there are a lot of clouds to filter that intense sun. My dad says that tomatoes like warm nights, which I don't have. In the summer, I have thermo-nuclear hot days and mild nights.

Hey Ernie, I'm in my second year of gardening and I'm learning as I go I guess. Oh did we get the blight on the tomatoes the first year! Last summer there was hardly any blight at all, because I cut down the watering. Well, when I did that, I ended up with quite a few split tomatoes. Last spring I tried growing my peppers in the cold frame. They did so well I left them there. Now I have a greenhouse to try (small but will be good for tomatoes and peppers this spring). I'm a southern CA girl, born and raised. I spent my first 3 years here in WA crying the blues about how I miss my So Cal. Well, now (10 years later) I don't want to garden (or live) any where else. I really think we have an ideal climate here.

Bernie are you telling me the MidWest is hard to garden in? boy have I got the wrong impression I have this picture in my mind of waving grain, towering corn and head tall tomatoes.?

Kelli spare how about excess? last month we had one day with three plus inches flooded every river for miles around.

In the early 70s I worked for Del Monte and they had several canneries in Calif I think the one that did tomatoes may have been Yubba City where ever that is.Those crops were canned or made into ketchup I don't know if they were grown there for the fresh market or not.

I guess I assumed when I see all the produce that comes from Calif that that is the perfect place to grow lots of things providing one has water.

Do you think those silver mulch blankets and a sun screen would help you? I don't spray either. Ernie

I guess I didn't make myself clear, the tomatoes we have in the winter are not fit to eat wherever they come from.
For a few years there was locally grown hydroponic ones, then some stupid +&*%$^ started picking those green & shipping them also, so ruined that. Always somebody fowling up the works trying to get all the volumne in their corner.
We had a lot of nice, good tasting tomatoes this summer.
We tryed selling them to a grocer. He bought a couple cases & was happy with them. The next time we contactec him some fool from Nebraska or Missouri or someplace was giving his away, so there went that market. The good part was they didn't sell either so he had all these spoiled, blah, THINGS!
The only things that don't grow well here are greens after June 1. Everything wants to make seed then.
We had a very dry last half of the season, but still managed good crops.
As for tall corn, yeilds were 180 to 240 bushel per acre,
heavy test weight, & nice & dry. Farmers did very well
We are now getting a nice snow to help replenish our subsoil.
Like I said earlier, make the best of where you are, it's all better than buying things!
Bernie

Sue I have been gardening a long time not always with success but mostly ok. This was an exceptional year for me not so good for the neighbor. Secret I spent way more time with mine than he did with his.

Seems like I learn new things all the time. About the time I think I have something all figured out a new crisis makes me second guess myself and makes me wonder if I ever knew anything or was just lucky.

Tomatoes have always been tough for me but about tomatoes in North West Washington. They benifit from growing where they can't be rained on. You said you had blight two years ago but not this year because you cut down watering. Watering is not the cause of blight. How you water probably contributes, tomatoes don't like to get wet leaves especially late in the day when they can't get dry prior to night fall.

I find it helps to cut off the lower branches that are touching the ground and mulching with straw, plastic, or bark so the soil cant splash up on the foliage.Growing under a plastic tent just about guarentees you of a good crop.A friend of mine grows really good tomatoes but he is in the sun daylight till dark, he prunes hard , and sprays once or twice a week in fact he leaves the sprayer right in his garden.Every one had less blight problems last year and it had to do with 63 days without rain.


I wonder if you experienced spliting because of the variety or because you treated them to feast or famine when you cut down the water? They do well with a plastic mulch watered with a soaker hose underneath.

Hope you don't think I am telling you, you are doing anything wrong because I am just telling you a few things that work for me or what I think I may have learned. Ernie

Yuba City is in the northern part of the Central Valley. That is very far from me, but it still gets very hot there. Other people in town here don't have a problem with tomatoes, so it must just be me.

In my case, the splitting is most likely due to erratic watering. I do mulch with grass clippings or leaves. Spider mites kill my potatoes, too, but all other vegetables have done well. We also get more citrus than we know what to do with. We grow a lot of "eye candy", too, like this, for example.

This message was edited Dec 10, 2003 3:38 PM

Ernie it was the feast or famine with the watering I think. I cut all stems touching the ground and mulch. I sure hope we have another summer like this one next year tho. Loved the heat.

Since I garden by the square foot method, I keep crowding too many tomatoe plants in one 4 foot square. I think 1 per square is what I will do next year. I will also try one in the greenhouse. What does your friend use for spray?

:-D And no, I appreciate your wisdom Ernie, thats why I come to Dave's garden, to learn. And it sure is nice to talk gardening with others in our area too!!!

Kelli, that is a gorgeous bird of paradise. My mother grew one that was huge, probably about 4-5 feet in diameter, it was hardly ever pruned. When we sold her house, the bird of paradise was over 30 years old, and the new owners ripped it out. Sigh.

Kelli that is a very neat plant I even guessed what it was though I don't think I have ever seen one either in the flesh or a picture nearly as good as yours nice job.

Well about the tomato thing I for the life of me can't seem to get brussel sprouts to work the rest of that family grows superb for me?

The citrus is what I remember most about San Diego a friend of my dads that I visitsd had lots of that and even a banana
tree but that he rolled inside in bad weather I can't remember if he had fruit on it. So it would seem you can still grow more neat stuff than I can makes me jealous. Ernie

Thanks, eweed! The b-o-p picture is probably one of the best pictures I've ever taken, that is, it is way above my usual picture quality.

Eweed, i wouldnt move at all. I grew up in the city with alot of clay soil. My mom and grandmother would do their best to compost stuff like leaves and kitchen scraps. When i got horses, my mom would come and get horse manure and put it in the garden area. I think it made things much better in the garden for them. They sure did love to garden. My grandmother only quit gardening about 6 years before she died at 93.
As far as where i live, i love this place. I wouldnt trade it for anything else i know of.
I would love to hear about your place. Robbie

Bagby039 My place is not bad I live within five miles fo two lakes, a good sized river very close to the salt water and thirty miles from the mountian top.

In days gone by I could hunt ducks and phesant practicaly from my back yard and of course fish in a heart beat. On any given day my kids had a lot of recreation open to them.

I live about two miles from where I did as a kid and Linda lives about four blocks from her childhood home in the thirty eight years we have lived in this neighbor hood besides ours there have been about six homes built in a square half mile.

We live on a two acre yard and share it with two golden retrievers two cats and a couple flocks of Bob White quail.

All in all a pretty good place to live and no I won't be moving either I am going to die here and the ashes go down by the creek. Regards Ernie

I love that scenery you just desribed, Ernie. That sounds like such a nice place for a kid to grow up. Any child should have such a wonderful place to grow up. Sounds so beautiful. I live in the back half of 21 acres will two ponds on the property that we can see from our house. There are deer that frequent out pasture along with our horses. We have a creek near our house too that runs from the ponds on both sides of our house. We didnt get to raise any kids here but they do come for a visit sometimes. The peace and tranquility is wonderful here. Thanks for sharing, Robbie

Sue_WA

Sue - tell me more about your square foot garden

I started mine last year and I have agree - more than
two tomatoes to a square was a jungle.

I am hoping to make some of the cages in the book

Did you?

Hi roxroe! Our squarefoot garden that is roughly 13 x 30. It has 14 1/2 square foot beds & 1 coldframe with cedar mulch in the paths. This spring I will create raised beds with cedar boards to help keep everything contained a little better. I'm really thinking about putting my tomatoes somewhere else now, giving up 8 square feet for two plants is a lot of prime real estate, but I really have not decided yet. I went and got my square foot gardening book out. I have the 1981 version. Does he give tips on tomato cages in yours? I have used vertical supports (stakes) in the past, but the indeterminate tomatoes always outgrow their stakes. I want to try the heavy galvanized wire next. With the large holes and at least 5 feet tall. Is this what you will do?