Don't know where this would go so I put it here.
How many of you plant gardens and or get your veggies from the farmers market?I told the Misses I wanted us to be more selfsufficent, grow our own veggies and eat more wild game. So we planted a 10 by 25 garden and have spent more time doing things together and enjoy watchin the corn and other things grow.
With the price of gas we need to cut back on other things and save more money.

Nothin' like a freash 'mater and cucumbers in the evening with supper.

Trapper! I plant a 40x60 garden every year,some of it in raised beds and give most of it away to old people who can't work the garden or afford to buy fresh,makes me feel good,been know to even can it up for them when I'am doing my canning for the year.Young people stop and ask for some,I ask,"Can you pick your own,if you can, you can plant your own,unless it's for some old person.If you plan it carefully it can also be a food plot,nice place to errect a blind,just to watch the deer!!!deer ate 36 tomato plants ,tomatoes and all one year,never knew they would eat tomatoe vine and all. Last year a Moose come through the fence and cleaned up most of what was left just before hunting season.If more people gardened there would be alot less misery in this world.I do all of mine organically so I get a salt shaker and eat right off the vine,no poison to worry about.You pull a fresh tomato/cucumber off the vine wipe it on your shirt and eat it before it knows it's been picked,now that is fresh.The Grandkid love to forage on their own,looks like a herd of deer went through when their done!!See you at Point a la Barbe.

We live in an apartment so we plant a bucket garden. It does not yeild a lot but we do get fresh tomatoes, peppers, herbs, kale, and onions.
Sure beats those grocery store tomatoes, and it takes little space, little water, and little time.

40'x30' right at 7000 feet above sea level. Planted sweet corn, roma tomatoes, zukes, broccoli, carrots, pie pumkins, acorn squash, 2 kinds of lettuce, spinach, kale, sugar snap peas, green beens, chiles, jalapenos, basil, and thyme. Had a cold wet spring here. My first planting of sweet corn took two weeks to come up. I'm afraid my chiles and jalaps aren't gonna make it.

Unleaded is $3.50 and up on the mountain... Ouch.

Sean

Square Foot Gardening Rules!!

I read the book on Square Foot Gardening as I live in a townhome. Now I do it with pots instead of small beds, as it's easier to keep 'em level, and reduces erosion.

I do bell peppers, Chinese pea pods, string beans, pickling cucumbers, and two kinds of tomatoes, as well as habanero peppers, and herbs like spearmint (wasn't my idea, it just came up) basil and dill.

I also like to support the local truck farmers, so I buy tomatoes and salad cucumbers from them too. (MAN! Kids can go through some tomatoes eh?)

LD

Always had a garden in Virginia and did well. Gotta admit gardening in NM & TX didn't do nearly as well, with having to water alot. Haven't tried to garden yet here in NV until this year and late frost got most of my efforts as a reward. We're about 5,000 feet so things are chancey. Not as high as Sean but high. Hope this last planting will do better.

Having mostly woods have cleared enough to plant a 20 X 60 main plot and now this year I have added another plot of 30 X 40. The squirrels, corns and deer wreck havoc on sweet corn - I do get it back after it is converted to protein in the fall. Gave over a goodly portion to the wife for herbs and what a surprise that has been. Got dryin, smelly leaves evrywhere on the porch. Will get a good crop of potatoes, beans and tomatoes. A few greens sprinkled in too. Peppers, summer and winter squash round it out. We've been trying to go with heirloom varieties though not always as successful as we wish.

That is the squirrels, racoons and deer eat my corn.

We've also got 2 dozen apple trees so the deer come in here a lot too. I've got a 4' high fence around our garden with 3' of poultry netting above that. If I didn't I'd have nothing but dirt and deer and elk poop.

And yes we water, but our house runs on spring water from just up the canyon, so I'm just letting it back out. Our garden is only 50' from the creek, anyway.

Put in my last planting of corn today.

Sean

My corn ,tomatoes and peppers are doing well.However I need to replant my squash and cucumbers. My cherries and apples are looking good.
Sean it has been raining every evening for the past3 weeks here in Espanola.

Espanola, eh? Better place for growing chiles than here. I'm in the east side of the Sacramentos between the bustling metropoli of Weed and Mayhill, right on the raging Rio Penasco. I planted Espanola Improved chiles and jalapeños which didn't come up due to the cold wet weather. Gonna replant those and a couple of other things after this next storm system rolls through. 60% chance of heavy rain this weekend. We usually get about one precip event between early May and when the monsoons start in early July. Never seen anything like this. Been in this part of NM for most of the time since 1994. Winter05/spring06 was a 100 year drought event, then we got 40" of rain in two months and it just hasn't stopped since. It has all the developers and city councils in the region excited because they were almost out of water. Now they can build more houses. Mother Nature has a way of educating the shortsighted.

Good luck with your garden. I may have to post a picture of mine on here when it gets up and rolling.

Sean

My wife and I have been gardening since we were kids growin' up and have always had a garden since we were married 29 years ago. When we were on the farm we had not quite 4 acres of garden, mostly for pick-ur-own, but we took our share. When we lived in NW Wyoming the season was only 60 days but we grew some of the best cole crops ever. Tomatoes and sweet corn were out but all cool season crops were incredible.

Now we're back in the Ozarks on a piece of ground that is more rock and red clay than soil but we took a spot on top of the ridge about 30 X 80, dug a hole a foot deep and filled it with soil from an old feed lot. With the addition of some lime and a lot of organic matter it's becoming good stuff. We fill it every year. No fruit trees to date but next year my first asparagus planting will be ready for some light harvest.

The wife cans or freezes a lot of stuff and makes our own: salsa, V-8 style tomatoe juice, pepper relishes, pickle relishes, a sweet corn thingy that's to die for, taco sauce, tomatoe juice and sauce and a hot, salty dill pickle that just shouldn't be legal. We are once again going to raise our own beef and I get a couple hogs from an old friend who still raises them on dirt. Along with the 50-70 squirrels, a couple deer, a turkey and hopefully this fall some 'coon we eat fairly well and economically. I make some of my own beer and if I get some good grapes or blackberries the wine can be great. Sourdough and sweet breads made by the wife top off the daily diet.

Vic

every season our 30 X 40 foot garden fenced to keep the deer critters out, has fed us fat and sassy with tomatos, squash, beans, peas, carrots, peppers etc.

the only tomato worth eatin is a homegrown one.

Axe