So I sit here in a nice rainy day in El Paso thinking. What is your garden for this summer. I know climate dictates everything but if SHTF what is the back up source for the grocery store?
Red lettuce and strawberries already in. Tomatoes, eggplant, corn, okra, beans, squash, cantaloupe, turnip greens, and pumpkins to follow. May grow some gourds this year as a test run. Gourds could come in handy in a SHTF scenario.
Snow… as of now. It’s almost all melted, and then in a month I’ll ge to the brass-tacks about what will be growing!~
Started my seed pods just the other day so in six or seven weeks they will be ready for the garden.
Strawberries and blueberries doing good so far. My soil sucks and I have a pretty small garden. But thinking about corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and sunflowers. Cucumbers and pumpkins take a lot of room, but that is what the wife and kids want.
Not me, yet. Too damned much mud and ground is entirely too cold for germination.
As for what I know I will plant.
Taters
'maters
onions
peppers
squash
beans
when it warms up it’ll be the same as every year…tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, peas, cabbage, a couple rows of sweet corn, onions, cantaloupe, and a small pumpkin patch for my daughters
corn in the ground already…more corn and tomatoes being prepped for the move outside in a few weeks
ive got radishes planted as of yesterday
cactus and rock.
I’m doing box gardens this year - easier to manage and care for.
I have started indoors:
Tomatoes (Roma, Big Boy, Big Beef)
Jalapenos
Habaneros
Bonnets
Bell peppers
Mint (for my mojitos)
Basil
Ready for outdoor planting:
Sweet corn
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Garlic
Watermelons
Zucchini
Acorn Squash
Romaine lettuce
And probably a couple of others I’m forgetting. If anyone’s interested in the square foot gardening thing I’ll put up a couple of links.
Dog Poo & Bunny Poo:p
We started one last year with -
corn
cucumbers
tomatoes
bell peppers
squash
lettuce
…rabbits enjoyed the lettuce in a hurry, corn took up way too much space, tomatoes didn’t fair well…ended up with so damn many cucumbers and squash we have a freezer full still. We started all our stuff inside and then transplanted.
This year we’re adding more fertilizer, tilling, and trying again, this time we’re ditching the corn and making room for onions and more tomatoes (hopefully). Everything is growing pretty good so far in the house, but who knows what will happen when we transplant it all. I know we need to fence it off, I just hate to have a fence up around it.
My experiment with the spare logs laying around has worked out well so far though…
When I lived in MT I had a little lady from Church who I allowed to Garden in a section of my yard. She was a friggin artist! She knew all of these other non-edible plants that either worked somehow symbiotically with certain garden vegetables or that simply beautified the garden while not competing with the edibles. The garden looked more like a wild Eden than your usual organized crop rows. I wish I had got out and learned more from her:(
About 75% of the seeds I started in peat pots took so thats not a bad average and outdoor hardening and planting will begin soon. I hope to increase my total output from last year by 10% and barring any serious issues with weather there will be good eating summer on.
Everything is growing well. Looking forward to fresh food. Pick it, wash it, eat it.
tomatoes, peppers, onions and corn in the ground…pollen all over everything and crazy temps this week…welcome spring
Same crazy weather here, 2nd week of April here in PA and I have my seedlings enjoying some outside sun time at 85+ degrees, hope this is not a preview of a burning/dry summer to come.
Cardiac- Yep. Pollen worse than I’ve seen in a long time.
storms rolling through the area today but for us no rain so far just lots of wind and flying pollen 