Anyone growing a garden this season?

[dksart]

I am doing my first semi-large-ish garden this year. I have always done a few things like peppers, herbs, eggplant etc. but I've got my whole side yard appointed as a vegetable garden now. It's 5' by 22' and I will be installing the underground drip watering system tomorrow. Many of my seedlings are ready to go in the ground. I started a lot of seeds in little "greenhouses" indoors last month. I started the first batch of tomatoes in peat pellets Feb. 1st, but we had a surprize freeze during the first week I put the baby plants outside and they didn't make it. So, I started over again. Bigger and better!

I'm growing numerous varieties of beans, peas, tomatoes (10 varieties), okra, broccoli rabe, broccoli, cauliflower, ichiban and green goddess eggplant, zucchini , yellow straightneck and delicata squash, mesclun, arugula, buttercrunch and a few salad bowl lettuces , spinach, carrots , onions, garlic, fennel, and a few hot and sweet peppers.

I also made an edible flower bed around a large tree in our backyard. Plus, I planted a meyer lemon tree , a persian lime tree , and a mandarin orange tree and outside my kitchen door I have a dedicated herb garden , not just rosemary and basil in pots this year!

Happy Earth Day everyone!

[Manymanyhounds]

Wow, that sounds great! We are limited in space so we'll have a few tomato plants, my usual lettuce barrel full of different varieties of lettuce and my herb garden, garlick chives, rosemary, basil and cilantro.

Would love to see pictures of your garden once things get going! Sounds wonderful

[boulder alley]

I am doing a vegetable garden this year. I tried 'lasagna' style and it really isn't working. I will probably till the layers together and try again. I have tomatos, basil, peppers ready to plant and aspagus that I started from seed last year that is ready to plant.

[dksart]

I just hope I'm not getting in over my head. I am so sunburned! Every day I think that I'll only be outside a little while and it winds up being hours. It was 87 today and I felt as though I might pass out. I don't know how I'll be able to stand it next month when every day will be 95+.

Enough complaining! I will try to remember to post some pics as soon as I get everything in the ground. All of my baby seedlings are looking ready to go.

[edgeyveggie]

I'm jealous of all that fruit you're growing, agh! I wish I could grow lemons

[lukalovescats]

Barrell of lettuce? Can you send a pict? I've got my little deck that I will be growing on this year and trying to figure out the best way to utilize the space. I have 2 tomato bags coming for the corners and I am getting the thingys to hang over with herbs in it. Want to grow some other veggies, but very limited space. Holy cow my brain is not working right now. Can't think of words..... Ugh

[sdes]

Just like Edgeyveggie, I'm pretty darn jealous. Out here in the high desert country we can't really do much until the end of May unless one has a green house. All my gardening is done in pots, barrels and a bathtub. I can get 3 tomato plants and a large crop of basil in my tub. I put zucchini and other squashes in my barrels and a good variety of herbs in clay pots. I also have a little strip of soil about 12 inches wide 8 feet long where I plant Italian peppers. I still have in my freezer a little bit of basil and peppers from last summer but they'll soon be gone, making room for more.

[Valerie]

I used to grow for the farmer's market. I've paired down considerably since then. We always have wild blackberries, strawberries, apples, pears and many herbs. Yearly I plant tomatoes, sugar snap peas, 5-6 varieties of greens, pumpkins, watermelon, beans, and other things I can't remember right now. I LOVE my garden.

[lukalovescats]

Got my hubby to let me pick up some stuff today. Yeah. I have strawberries and lavender for the strawberry pots. Also got tons of basil for one pot and then rosemary, thyme, and chives for the other. I still need to pick up some oregano and cilantro. My tomato bags should be arriving soon. I think next year I'll get some bins for the veggies. Can't wait to have some pesto.

[dksart]

We had a family party at our house yesterday. While playing football, my nephews fumbled right on top of my Persian lime tree ....snap. Also, there were a few casualties around the baby lettuce garden. We'll recover.

lukalovescats: I made a batch of strawberry preserves and made some of it into Vanilla/Lavender Strawberry Preserves. Yum.

Speaking of pesto, I made the most delicious one yesterday with almost every type of herb I am growing. I used some of that to make my garden pesto dip, which was the big hit at the party. (I also made roasted new potato & green bean salad, taquitos with fresh guacamole, homemade tortilla chips served with salsa verde and black bean & roasted corn salsa, tandoori-spiced brown rice salad with toasted pine nuts, raisins and chick peas, tortilla pizzas
, sun-dried tomato hummus with fresh veggie crudite, and an anti-pasto platter of Caprese salad , mixed olives, roasted red peppers and marinated artichokes.)