lololol trade you for chickens as soon as I turn my back they go over the garden fence .
Not started anything prob. will just buy a few later on. Daughter started a lot could raid hers .
We finally got sun today, my plants think they are mushrooms .. Gin

My sweet husband will dig up our garden area about March 1st.
We're north of ATL so I'll start most of my veggies in the greenhouse,
but I'm buying plants this year; seeds take so long and I have no patience.
I'll baby the new plants and get them strong before going in the ground..

planning on:

tomatoes
peppers
onions
eggplant
okra
squash
yukon potatoes

I would LOVE to have chickens but covenants and restrictions would probably poo-poo that idea.

I would love to dig in my garden area ~ Mar 1. The 2+ feet of snow currently on the ground will undoubtedly interfere....

--Stitz--

I'll probably be starting a few things come March. On the list to grow this year:

2 varieties of bush beans
Snap peas
Lettuce
Spinach
Rainbow carrots - if you haven't seen or tasted these, they are just incredible. The colors range from almost white, melon, yellow, and even red.
2 varieties of eggplant
3 varieties of tomatoes
Pineapple tomatillo - anyone tried these? They're suppose to be good for fresh eating and have a very distinct pineapple flavor.

Kevin

Kevin,
I will definitely look for pineapple tomatillo; sounds wonderful!!
Last summer we tried yellow brandywine tomatoes. They were so delicious.
We also had another yellow I can't remember the name but both yellows were extremely juicy.
Makes me want a summer tomato sandwich, yum!
Happy growing~Becky

OMGoodness! BLT's here we come!!! Kev I think eggplant plants are sort of pretty in a way. I like the shape of the leaves and the color of the flowers.Are you fixing Baba Gounosh(whatever on spelling)? One of my favorites.

I've got Limmony Tomatoes, I really want to try the Chocolate Cherry tomatoes. And I saw another type of cherry that was zebra striped,looks very fun. Gonna do a burpless cuck or two. And i absolutely love the Lilac and Chocolate Bell peppers. I think the flavor is better and lots of eye appeal. I going to start checking into beets and stuff too this year,the family really like pickled beets, but I'm just familiar with the refrigerator pickle version. Would really like to start into so sweet canning skills. I'm not a nut about it but becoming more self sufficient is really appealing. My husband has been out of work now for going on two months,so it seems like a good skill to have.

Stitz I know what you mean. I went out to fill the bird feeders and sunk up to my knees in the snow. I really need to invest in something other than short ankle socks.

Hey should we all get together and do spread sheets(just kidding):)

ginnibug

Hey Ginge You got a deal on the pig trade out. I'll drop her off down by the Sooner state line and you can just Fedex me the chickens. No wait, the dogs will eat the chickens, you'll have to keep the chickens for now, but you can have the pig.If she decides to come back home tell her she's on her own she'll have to hoof it. My husband might miss her but I certainly will not. I've learned I'm not a pig person. A cat, dog, bird person BUT most certainly not a pig person.

ginnibug

Oh hold on maybe I am a pig person. I love pigs....they taste like bacon!!!!

ginni, I tried roasted beets the other night and they were fantastic. Little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, 425 for 25 mins, they caramelized and tasted like candy! I'm writing down all of your very descriptive veggies; they sound great. Can't believe I left out cukes, but I'm only planting ONE plant, those babies come too fast for just one of us to enjoy; hubby says they 'come back' on him; I told him they came out with burpless ages ago but he's dead set against them.

You know, okra has beautiful flowers, and I do like the eggplant foliage. Grilled eggplant you can't beat!

Come on, Summer!!
Becky

Ginn

I really got into stir fried eggplant. I grow the small, thin, Japanese kind and they work great cooked this way. I usually just stir fry them in olive oil with maybe a couple of dried chili peppers if I want spice. Then when they're just about done, I add some sesame paste and a splash of sesame oil. YUM!! They have a very meat-like texture.

I wish I had more room for tomatoes. There are about a dozen types I would like to grow. My biggest decision right now is whether or not to plant one of those grape-types. I adore eating those little things, but the plants get SO HUGE! I just don't have room for something like that - at least I don't think so. Maybe I do...

Kevin

You know just thinking about all the vegg some more... I think one of the all time favorites is shish-ka-bob stuff. I don't think I can live without a grill of some sort. Throwing those veggies on there and getting a little carmelization . It might one of man's best ideas. So simple, so easy,soooo yummy. I really love mushrooms with olive oil and lemon pepper on the grill. O.k. I love any summer squash grilled the same way too.

Hey Becky that sounds absolutely great,we'll have to try it. Have you roasted any carrots that way yet. My Mother-in-law try it from Martha and it was so good. I loved them and I'm really not a carrot fan other than in my salad. Your hubby really needs to break down and try the burpless or English or greenhouse cucks. There truly is a difference. I can't eat the regular ones,they "come back" on me too. I can go through plenty of the burpless though with no ill effects. giniibug

We sold our gas grill last summer and bought a simple grill and a charcoal chimney. We'd had some sort of gas grill from tiny with no thermostat to this last huge one which had the outside burners, etc. for as long as we've been married, 20 yrs. We were SHOCKED at the difference in taste with charcoal instead of gas; it reminded me of my childhood when we'd have to be very organized to get everything cooked before the coals burned up:)

ginni, I roast veggies like crazy since watching Barefoot Contessa. (She, Giada and Nigella Lawson are my favorites.) I use parchment paper and my largest sheet pan with organic olive oil and actually make the vegetables the main part of our meal with a tad of meat on the side for taste. I loveee baking bread and we clean off the pan of veggies & olive oil with the bread, LOL.. but it's delicious! Broccoli roasts up great, frozen artichoke hearts, brussel sprouts, green beans, throw on carrots and tomatoes for beautiful color~ I never microwave or boil vegetables anymore.

Is March when I should start my seeds? I honestly don't know. I was going to do some research on that today and look at the forum post I stumbled on! I've applied for a community garden plot as a way to get out of the shade. Not sure what I'm going to grow apart from tomatoes, spinach, basil, beans. Maybe I'll base it on what I really love but find expensive at the Farmer's Market.

Such good information here. I may not need to brave the Veggie forum!

HereÂs a few pics from the community garden I co-founded last year.

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After we built our raised beds, we had leftover soil, so we formed it into mounds, covered it with plastic and planted right through the plastic. Stuff grew very well this wasy.

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Kevin

OMG, Kevin! Those are great pictures!
I'm printing them right now to show my bed builder-)

Zebra striped tomatoes are tasty. But even better is a variety called Yellow Sausage (or something like that. Sausage is definitely in the name, though.) It's weird looking, basically does look like a tomato shaped like a lumpy sausage, but it is incredibly flavorful. It's kind of stripey too, and ripens to a yellow color. My roommate likes to do weekly dinner parties, and people would fight over the slices of the Yellow Sausage tomatoes when we would make salads with our backyard tomatoes. We are definitely growing that one again this year.

My peppermint tried to take over the world. I have a concrete backyard, very small. I think the peppermint actually rooted to the concrete. It smells fantastic though. Made a peppermint syrup at the end of the season that was delicious. We'll see if it comes back. I'm assuming it will, but I'm not certain.

I gotta figure out how to repel the mosquitoes in a big way this summer though. I did NOT enjoy my yard starting in August, because I could not even go out there for 5 seconds without ending up with 6-10 mosquito bites. And I'm really allergic to mosquito bites; they swell up to at least half dollar size spots. Ugh.

quinn, we use lemon balm essential oil to repel mosquitoes.
It works great~ mix it with a little olive oil and put in a spray bottle.
Shake it up and spritz on you before you head outside.

I love peppermint. It really is amazing how it will spread and come up through cracks.
I have all kinds and freeze the leaves in ice cube trays for tea.

I'll have to check out the 'sausage' tomatoes; sounds delish!

Happy growing,
Becky

I know I've seen that sausage tomato. Sounds lovely tasting. I love that great old tomato zip, not the sweet ones.

One thing I think I'm going to try(instead of dragging the old rototiller out). Haybales as raised bed containment walls! I've moved the growing area so many times it's not even worth talking about. It's my own version of crop rotation. I had to start in on containers while I was pregnant due to pregnancy induced high blood pressure(yeah what fun). I'm going to do raised beds this time(never done that one yet).I personally LOVE container gardens and they do work for veg but I don't think you ALWAYS get as good of results.

Quinn you should try spearmint too! Or chocolate mint, or lemon mint...or ginger mint sometime you can get that in a variegated plant,so awesome. I love gardening, can you tell? ginnibug

I love it too, ginni:)

After seeing Kevin's pics and several articles I showed him,
my sweet hubby now says he'll get the 2x10's to build some raised beds, yay!!

I agree about container gardens for veggies.
Some work great, others a waste of time,
in my growing experience.

Cherry tomatoes always a great choice for a big pot right outside the kitchen door on the south side..
Also, I've found different lettuces do very well in a pot.

So looking forward to Spring~
Becky

Becky,

That's great. I think you'll really like raised bed gardening. When we built ours, we couldn't afford cedar, so we used fir. To help retard the rotting process, we lined all the beds with 6 mil plastic - just stapled it on and then brought it around the bottom edge and top edge. There's a thin piece of wood nailed along the top edge to hide the plastic. The outside has a couple of coats of stain.

I built a raised bed in my home garden like this over 10 years ago and it's still holding up strong.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,
We were talking about the type of wood to use last night.
Didn't want to use pressure treated with all the chemicals in them;
your info helps a lot!
I can't wait; no more bending over, well not as much :)
Thanks!!
Becky

Got the notice that we scored our community garden plot today! Finally something to blog about :p That and the whole wheat pasta I may make this weekend :)

Oh, and the spring migration has begun and the birdz are comin' back!

My spearmint didn't really like me last year. It kinda grew in straggly, while the peppermint went bananas. When I first moved to my current place, I had pineapple mint, which is really pretty as well as wonderfully fragrant. What happened? It fried. My yard is concrete and a little difficult. It gets really hot out there, and everything dries out really quickly. This past year, we planted most things in that moisture retaining soil, and actually managed to grow things all the way through til frost. Amazing. Before last year, it was an exercise in frustration and/or plant murder. The only things I could grow before in that yard were chives and lilies.

My arugula has germinated. This gives me hope.