RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 10:46 AM
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What types of food do you grow? |
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I grow some of the usuals and a few exotics: Tomatoes (two varieties) Red Bell Peppers Lettuce Green Beans String beans Snap peas Garlic (sure keeps bad bugs away!) Melons Cucumbers Zucchini Asparagus Eggplants
Strawberries (4 types) Blueberries (6 types) Raspberries Currants (2 types) Peaches (2 types) Plums Apples (3 types) Grapes (3 types) Cherries (2 types) Apricots Pecans (2 types)
And surprise: (These go indoors for the winter) Tangerines Oranges Avocados
I failed at corn and peanuts!!!
This stuff keeps me real busy and AWOL from DU Friday through Sunday.
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Shell Beau
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Tue Jul-19-05 10:47 AM
Response to Original message |
1. Wow that is a lot of gardening you must do! |
RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 10:51 AM
Response to Reply #1 |
4. Yep. It puts the "red" in Red Cloud. |
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It also makes me want to look in disgust at grocery prices. Tomatoes are easy, should not cost hardly anything. Blueberries are really hard to pick at a viable rate out of the brambles so I just make juices out of it, as I don't want to think I can only get about 4 pounds per hour. Yet their price per pound is pretty similar in the stores.
Forgot to mention, that these are all organically grown.
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Shell Beau
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Tue Jul-19-05 10:56 AM
Response to Reply #4 |
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and the talent to do what you do. One day...
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Hugin
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Tue Jul-19-05 10:48 AM
Response to Original message |
2. Mainly mold and fungus. |
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Sounds as if you've got quite the green thumb.
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RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 10:59 AM
Response to Reply #2 |
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Especially, if they have the white mold on them. That is usually toxic to other molds and the leaves add needed carbon.
Soils need to be tilled. I keep the scraps and add saw dust or other forms of carbon and work it back into the soil after composting. Best of all is the compost "oil" that flows from the metal composter. A few drops of that stuff and life stays green for months. Sadly some resilient weeds have found that the drops will splatter on them too under the composter.
I started out like a fool, but once the home made compost got in the soil it looked like coffee grounds. I had to steal leaves late at night (my neighbors would howl with laughter if they caught me) and store them. Then I worked them into the soil in the fall and like magic the plants would be about twice as productive the following year.
I learned never compost grass as the seeds will still be in it and sprout next year in the garden with vigor.
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Hugin
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:15 AM
Response to Reply #8 |
20. Good tip on not composting grass clippings... |
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Hadn't thought of the problem with the seeds.
Unless, of course I was going to use the compost on my lawn.
Need separate piles.
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tridim
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Tue Jul-19-05 10:50 AM
Original message |
If I had more room I'd grow all that stuff |
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But I only have room for Roma and Better Boy tomatoes, strawberries and mint. The mint was an accident, but I like it. It's also good for keeping the pests away.
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RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:03 AM
Response to Original message |
12. Spices rule, but they sure do spread. |
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I forgot about those! I have some for teas.
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tridim
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Tue Jul-19-05 02:20 PM
Response to Reply #12 |
34. Yea, my accidental mint came from a dirt transplant.. |
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One seed has become 4 monster bushes in 1 year.
The strawberries are the same way.. 6 initial plants are now about 100 plants. It's a challege to keep them from creeping even further.
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soothsayer
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Tue Jul-19-05 10:50 AM
Response to Original message |
3. lots of heirloom tomatoes and semi-exotic peppers this year |
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and an eggplant! and a cuke!
off the top of my head:
Tomatoes: white tomato beefsteak tomato mexican tomato russian pink tomato Polish linguisa tomato sioux purple eva black cherry black brandywine green zebra mr. stripey sun gold sweet million sugar baby early girl first lady some yellow kind roma fourth of july
Peppers: chile relleno italian relleno big bertha (green) chocolate pepper chocolate habernero jumbo jalapeno purple jalapeno thai dragon shoot! i have 26 peppers and have forgotten most
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RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:01 AM
Response to Reply #3 |
11. A most impressive array. I am amazed. |
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I need a little variety of each, what with the food prices and hungry kids to feed...
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soothsayer
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:09 AM
Response to Reply #11 |
16. thanks! i only have one of each plant, and most of the peppers |
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Edited on Tue Jul-19-05 11:10 AM by soothsayer
are in earth boxes (trying them for the first time this year!).
So far so good.
oh! and
rosemary basil thyme parsley sage thai basil peppermint lavendar cilantro oregano bay wormwood
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ProfessorGAC
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Tue Jul-19-05 10:57 AM
Response to Original message |
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We just have tomatoes, three herbs, and mulberries. All other gardening consists of bushes, flowers, and ornamentals. No edibles. (Well, if we had to, i guess we could eat the leaves.) The Professor
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RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:07 AM
Response to Reply #6 |
15. Professor, have you found the good folks at Spray n Grow? |
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Their sprays are excellent for ornamentals. But I find it just makes everything so plentiful that I have to keep making new stands just to hold the stuff up. Foxtails over seven feet high. It's pretty but a lot of work.
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ProfessorGAC
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:13 AM
Response to Reply #15 |
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I'll look into it. We've got TONS of bushes and flowers. We spent out big First Class/Five Star 25th anniversary trip to Europe money on a full-blown landscaping project. (17 years of savings!)
We always had lots of bushes and flowers, but now it's all so artistic! So, obviously, we've got tons invested in this, so we need to be way into the upkeep and pruning and like that. We always did the weeding and feeding, but we've both got to take it up a notch now.
I'll look into Spray n Grow. Thanks. The Professor
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LaurenG
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Tue Jul-19-05 10:58 AM
Response to Original message |
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I wish we could grow food at my house. We have moles and I refuse to kill them so I grow things in pots.
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RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:10 AM
Response to Reply #7 |
17. I wonder if moles will leave by vibrations? |
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I have often seen an ad to repel them by vibrations, but I don't have moles as the soil is not to their liking. So I cannot attest to the product.
However when the pecans get bigger (this is the first year they are bearing)I will have to keep the squirrels out. None so far, but that is only a matter of time.
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Blue Diadem
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Tue Jul-19-05 10:59 AM
Response to Original message |
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That's an impressive list.
We're growing: cucumbers zucchini pumpkin sugar-baby watermelon some kind of hot banana pepper two types of green bell type peppers roma tomatoes beefsteak tomatoes an heirloom tomato variety that my neighbor gave me leaf lettuce
I want to add some fruit trees, strawberry plants and berry bushes. I grew up with apple trees, pear trees, cherry trees and blackberries, I miss that.
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RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:15 AM
Response to Reply #9 |
21. Pumpkins. Now I know you have the space. |
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I foolishly put the trees too close to the house. This means that the ones that get the early morning sun will bloom first and then their mates a little later. If I had to do it all over the trees would be in the open spaces to get equal sun and maximize their potential.
I have June bearing strawberries which replaced the other variety. True they were bigger and the harvest was so bountiful I didn't even put the nets up to keep the birds out, but now I miss the other variety.
Good luck.
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Wickerman
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:01 AM
Response to Original message |
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I am envious of your growth!
We only manage to get these:
Tomatoes (three varieties) Green Peppers Lettuce Spinach Cucumbers Broccoli Rhubarb and next year we are hoping for Asparagus.
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RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:17 AM
Response to Reply #10 |
22. Still that is a good variety. |
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I am just now starting with asparagus. I got the super male and purple varieties and like you have to wait a year. Should be worth the wait.
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Wickerman
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:26 AM
Response to Reply #22 |
29. I love some asparagus! |
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The Rhubarb is getting started over, too. We dug up what we had this summer as I think it had gone to seed too often before we moved in. It tasted a little funky.
We only planted one variety of Asparagus, but if it works in my soil I look to expand it.
I would love to get into berries like you, man, oh man. And, having lived in Texas I miss my Pecan trees. They don't work as well here in MN.
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hyphenate
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:04 AM
Response to Original message |
13. I don't have a garden |
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but I do grow a lot of mold. It seems to flourish on its own, though. ;)
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RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:18 AM
Response to Reply #13 |
23. Maybe mushrooms then? |
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Sounds like you may have their ideal breeding grounds.
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WCGreen
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:06 AM
Response to Original message |
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Oh you meant human food....
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RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:19 AM
Response to Reply #14 |
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We are food to lots of little critters.
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BamaGirl
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:12 AM
Response to Original message |
18. Not nearly as much as I'd like |
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I grow the typical stuff for my area. lettuce, 2 varieties tomatoes, 3 varieties bell peppers jalepeno peppers watermellon green beans lima beans cucumbers
herbs several mints parsley basil oregano lavendar, 2 types rosemary chives
fruit oranges limes lemons keylime, although my keylime is looking very puny
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RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:23 AM
Response to Reply #18 |
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Brings back mouth watering memories.
I wanted to go back south, but I knew I could not grow "north" in the south. The south does just fine in a green house up north.
Are you too far up to grow mangoes? If I could grow them I would not tend to my farm and just munch all them all day log, nature's dental floss!
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BamaGirl
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:35 AM
Response to Reply #27 |
33. No, I could grow them here |
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I'm debating getting a mango and a kumquat. I really don't have the space for more stuff. The citrus section of the nursery is dangerous lol. I've been avoided it for months lol.
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I Know How To Do it
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:18 AM
Response to Original message |
24. I GROWED A WALNUT ONCE. |
RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:24 AM
Response to Reply #24 |
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Did your tree get chopped down?
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I Know How To Do it
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:30 AM
Response to Reply #28 |
LiberalEsto
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:22 AM
Response to Original message |
26. Tomatos and sugar snap peas are the bare minimum |
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but most years I also plant
banana peppers yellow squash basil romaine lettuce cucumbers marjoram parsley garlic eggplant
perennial and self-seeding herbs:
peppermint chocolate mint lemon balm bee balm meadowsweet dill cilantro oregano sage thyme chamomile and pots of bay laurel and rosemary
This year we also have or had: radishes sweet potatos spinach beets chard beans artichokes (though I have to say they don't taste good - Maryland is not good artichoke-growing country)
various other herbs, some of which are just ornamental:
meadowsweet valerian hyssop horehound feverfew catnip catmint elecampane echinacea creeping thyme
and six young blueberry bushes, only 2 of which are producing, and one red currant, not yet producing.
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RedCloud
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:26 AM
Response to Reply #26 |
30. Another impressive array. |
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I think red currants are not as productive as black currants. That or they attract birds to their brighter colors.
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underpants
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Tue Jul-19-05 11:27 AM
Response to Original message |
31. Tomatoes I swear to god they are tomatoes |
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