How big is your veggie garden?

I'm curious to see everyone's veggie garden. I'm thinking of creating one for next year as most of what I plan on doing this year will be in pots.

Please post your pics and tell me what you like to plant - favorites/failures....

Oh if we could eat rocks my garden would be huge ! We don't have one yet putting in raised beds in a couple of weeks and will only have 4 beds 4x8 or 6x8 because of how the composite lumber comes. I am looking forward to getting them done. We used to have a garden tht was 75x50 when we lived in Missouri.

Here is my brand new veggie/cutting garden; this picture was taken on Easter Sunday. There are 2 rows of peas up, plus some turnips, beets (barely up) and some arugula. That row of green on the left is a bed of tulips from Brent and Becky's. They're in flower now and I'm cutting like mad.

The three tall structures are going to carry 3 kinds of beans...one is a red "asparagus bean" from China that I've never seen before. I have to wait until it warms up, though, for the beans.

All of my tomatoes are under the grow lights on the kitchen table: no eating in my kitchen from March-end of May. I'm growing Purple Cherokees, Sweet 100's, Sun Golds and one other little one. I plan to buy a Stupice tomato plant somewhere and experiment with some "new to me" heirloom tomato that I'm sure I'll come across at the sales this spring.

The little building is a shed that my husband and I have made into my garden shed. What a gift. And it's old. There are carvings of peoples' names inside the shed with the dates of 1904 and 1906.

daisygrrl

I love the historical aspect of your shed. Lovely garden setup.

What are planning on planting Chicory?

Ours is 20 x 30. We also have a separate asparagus bed of 12 x 12. The left side is 5 x 30 and has golden and red raspberries for 20' and the rest is blackberries and blueberries.

The front is 5 x 30 and used to be for onions but too many years of drenching rain storms led us away from them and we needed the space for some of our own hybridized daylilies.

The right side has the scarecrow in the herb portion of 5 x about 12'. The rest of that side is more of our own daylilies.

The back of the garden is where we have 3 of our 6 compost piles. The other 3 are along the rear property line.

I know it's not huge but there's only the two of us!

Anita -it's not that big really. The angle of this pic makes me dizzy.
I do like tomatoes and broccoli. Mrs. Bigcity thought she could grow watermelon AND muskmelon in this bed last year.
I would go ahead and make the garden, the one good thing is if you ever decide it's too much it is easy to put it back to other uses.


it is temporarily holding plants I am moving right now

I love your garden Pirl!!!

You are so right Al. The problem was that I keep thinking I want a pond -for the waterlily effect and a waterfall, but that spot is also perfect for a veggie garden.

Thanks, Anita.

It's hard to make the choices we're all faced with when it comes to gardening, isn't it? We went for the veggies because regardless of how soothing the sound of water is nothing can match that first sun kissed tomato and then the next few hundred pounds of them - along with all the other vegetables.

Of course, for anyone that can have both it's heavenly.

Anita: Not sure what chicory is? I am planting some lettuces such as Merveille de Quadra Saisons and some red leafed thing called Chiccoria that might be chicory...except the seed package is written in Italian~I can't quite make it out, but the plants look gorgeous!

I think that is chicory. We grew the Quatre Saisons one year and loved it. We keep coming back to Bibb and Butter crunch.

You know, I just looked at the package and I think it is chicory. But it has an open, rounded leaf, not that tight little bulby thing you see in the grocery stores. Ha ha, I just bought it because I thought it would look pretty!

That's a home run. When it looks great and you can eat it, too, it's hard to ask for more than that! There are many kinds of chicory so just enjoy it.

The asparagus bed as of about 10 days ago. Since then we've had about twenty with 380 to go.

I Googled it under Chiccoria and they replied with: no results, did you mean Chickcorea so I felt I'd give it a try and it came up with a Jazz singer named Chick Corea! LOL

Then I just tried chicory and this is what I found:
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=chicory&btnG=Search

Daisy, I think Anita was referring to the DG person named chicory31 who was the first person to respond to her thread. Very funny! Chick Corea is very good too.

I think my veggie garden is about 35 X 15.

oh, you're right! what an airhead I am!!!

LOL!!!!! Yes, Dave you are correct. Very funny Daisy!!!

Daisy, It reminded me of when I discovered "critter containers :

critterologist
Frederick, MD
Zone 6b
Jan 19, 2006
2:16 AM

Last year, I did nearly all my winter sowing in salad containers. I used the same soil depth (about an inch and a half) that I use for my indoor seed starting trays... some things didn't germinate; others did very well... everything got transplanted to cell packs when it got a couple sets of true leaves, so I don't think they were limited by the depth of the potting mix.

I'm going to use some salad containers this year, and I may also try some varieties in clear plastic pint containers. I punch a few holes in both bottom & top for drainage & ventillation.

Shirley1md
Ellicott City, MD
Zone 7a
Jan 19, 2006
10:06 PM

Critter, salad and deli containers are excellent to use in wsing! It's important to remember that the depth of the soil that you sow your seeds should be about 3" to prevent them from drying out. I learned this the hard way one year! Adding hydro crystals to the soil in shallow containers would definitely be a plus!

Dave47
Guilford, CT
Zone 6a
Jan 20, 2006
8:32 AM


Thanks Shirley. Its funny but I just spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what a critter container could be! Asked my wife too!
"Critter, salad and deli containers are excellent to use in wsing"

And thank you too Critterologist!
Dave

Sorry had to work so couldn't be on, had to laugh at the conversation going on about chicory (as in the little root roasted and dried in coffee down south)
I am growing some hot peppers I got from Ursula, some tomato, beans , epazote, and some other stuff. Mostly plants and veggies for making salsa we eat a lot of it here and eat a lot of hot peppers too.
Have a great day and you can call me Kerrie if that is easier

Chicory31 - Did you ever see Mitch's recipe for salsa? It's fantastic. I've never had better.

My veggie garden is 12' x 20' as of now, although I'd like to expand it. I'm trying straw bale gardening this year because I just don't have the time or energy to deal with the lousy clay soil here (check out the thread on the Veg Gardening forum :) ). I'm planting 3 types of cukes, 8 types of heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos, nasturtiums, muskmelons, parsley, cilantro, rosemary, and enough basil to keep us in pesto for years. (Actually some of the herbs and nasturtiums are planted eslewhere, even I can't cram that much into a 12' x 20' space!)

Chicory/kerrie: Where did you get epazote, how does it taste, and how do you cook it? (I've heard it's used for flavoring in mexican dishes?)

pam

I will have to find the salsa recipe, we will try anything here at least once!
I traded for the epazote, and I have seen it on a website that sells chili seeds and other Southwest plants used by Native Americans. If I have it I will post or dmail it to you give me a day or 2 as I am onbly on here for short periods of time.

This is a fantastic recipe. I only made about 1/4th of the quantity but we finished it off immediately. I didn't cook it but just ate it as it was:

MitchF
Red Oak, TX
Jan 18, 20068:17 PM
I will track it down - lets see . . .

1 Gallon chopped Tomatoes
4 medium Onions chopped
4 medium Bell Peppers chopped
4 medium Hot Peppers chopped
8 cloves garlic chopped
2 cups vinegar
4 tablespoons sugar
4 tea salt1 teaspoon each - cumin, ceyenne pepper and oregano

Mix all and bring to a boil, cook at a boil for 15 mins, open kettle no lid. Fill jars and seal. Process pints or quarts 10 minutes in a hot water bath.

Oh that sounds so good Thank you for the recipe!

mmmm..that does sound good!

wow...real texas salsa! thanks.

D

Mitch makes it, in Texas, but it originally came from his wife's family in OK. We used our fresh late summer tomatoes to make it.

That sounds super yummy! I will try that. Still a little ignorant and aprehensive about the whole canning world though...

Forget the canning and just make a batch and enjoy it over a weekend.

Maybe Mitch should start a cookbook:
"Salsa: it's not just for dessert anymore"

I always wanted to write one:
"Anchovies: not just for breakfast!"

Hi, new to Daves website!
Veggie gardens. In western NY--Greece to be exact--where we don't receive much sunshine, we've put in four raised beds. They are 4' x 6' x 3' high made of cedar wood, and are currently in a "U" shape configuration. We just moved them into this U shape (ouch--moved 7 cubic yards of dirt last week) in order to maximize the sunlight received in our very shaded neighborhood. I was pleased to see many worms and that after 3 years, each beds' soil looked excellent.

We decided on raised beds because of the large maple trees that have very invasive roots systems, and the critters that love to eat plants. By creating a raised planting area the invasive tree roots are less of an issue, rabbits and other small critters can't reach the lush tasties, and it is much easier on my back to work the dirt! So far, no problems with the deer that occasionally wander into the neighboorhood.

I'm still getting the hang of planting in such a small garden space--the lettuce is already in and more seeds will be planted this week! Bring on the sunshine!

Welcome to DG and Northeast Gardening Rvndancer!

Raised beds is an excellent idea. I wish you lots of sunshine!

welcome!!! Glad to have you here! I like the idea of a raised bed as well and am considering it for one part of my yard.

Hey all!
My veggie garden is 15'X18'. I use about 2/3 of it each season. I grow mostly tomatoes, cukes, basil and snow peas. I have had some success with broccoli in the spring. Zucchini, arugula, carrots, string beans, corn and watermelon also worked out well in past years. I am trying lettuce and spinach this spring. I don't have any raised beds yet...but I might get some more free compost at the Holtsville ecology site!

Nice space! Is that an arbor off to the very left in the photo? Have you tried growing your cucumbers on it?

Winter sown spinach is a big hit out here. Not that we grow it but many farm stands do. Great in salads and on sandwiches.

I've gone to the Ecology site - I look pretty sad with my Jetta and shovel...as compared to the pickups that go...

Thank you for the welcome! Found some brussel sprout plants yesterday so they are in the beds now. The problem right now is that the weather is warm and beautiful. Frost nights are still lurking so most other crops will have to wait another 3-4 weeks : ( .

Last summer, husband Gary made some awesome trellises for the backyard to act as privacy screening and growing space. We raised gourds last year and plan on pole beans, vine cucs and gourds this year.
Will post a jpg as soon as I can stop playing in the dirt.

Carole

Welcome new folks! I love connecting people to all these NY towns that are familiar to me by name only. (OK, I'm a little strange!) Good to have you here.
Dave

Pirl,
Last year we grew the cukes on that trellis to the left (it's just a small arch). This year I have the smaller white one ready for the snow peas and eventually the cukes next month.
-Kirk

Dave - you're probably not as strange as I must have sounded when I sent you a picture of the tomatoes and had posted a photo of the asparagus beds. You're reply was "looks good enough to eat" and I thought you meant the compost on the asparagus beds.

(I love how us older folks can confuse you "young'uns")

Anita - I know how you feel. We used to use my old Grand Am and take home 10 forty pound bags from the "landfill" mulch and then do than 8 to 10 times a day! I was jealous of the people with their big trucks who could take "two scoops"!

Rvndancer: We love Brussels sprouts with a walnut and honey glaze!!! The tiny ones are like butter.

Tomatoes are waiting patiently for another three weeks before they can go out.

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our snow peas! Our neighbor eats more cucumbers than can be believed. We give him 90% of ours and he simply couldn't appreciate them more. Did you ever notice how crispy home grown cukes are compared to store bought?