Winters_Lackey wrote:
songbird wrote:
Winters_Lackey wrote:
songbird wrote:
Winters_Lackey wrote:
...
I garden two yards, plus 2 plots in our community garden, and I'd
happily take on more if it were available.

that's a bit of fun. where are you at?

A first ring suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

i'd assume that means the lot sizes are not
very large?

Both lots are 6750 sq ft, but our house takes up quite a bit of it. The
little house we rent out is very small, and has a big back yard that I
do not rent with the house. The raised beds in the community garden are
each ~50 sq ft.

oh, ok, thanks, we're on 1.84acres (www.anthive.com is
the website, most pics are in the flowers section, but
there's others about too)... mostly gardens and decorations
now and not much grass/lawn left.

we're just starting our busy season. recently i'm
digging up some chives to reclaim the space that has
been taken over by them and using them to raise up
the neighboring garden. good clean fun.

i would have a hard time downsizing to fit things
into a small lot again. at present i'm being tempted
by a house for sale a bit from here that has 3 acres.
can't quite bring myself to do it, but would love to
be on a big enough place to actually be considered a
farm.


are you growing for market or for mostly your
own use or ?

Exclusively for our own use. Anything we can't use, we give to
family/friends/neighbors/whomever. Last autumn I took a bunch of
sunchokes to a coffee shop that I frequent occasionally, and some to the
Penzey's spice store for the employees. This year, I might consider
selling the sunchokes, though we really should eat more of them. They
are full of inulin, which is a prebiotic that feeds the nice yogurt
bacterias.

i would like to eat more cooked veggies from
the brassicas, but my Ma hates the smell of
cooked brassicas so i'm growing most of them
for fresh eating and they will be in reserve
for food if times get tough (turnips, rutabagas).
this next week Ma is visiting a friend so i
expect to get out and find a few turnips to
cook up.

mostly i am trying different things in various
combinations, dealing with heavy clay soil (with a
little sand) in most places, flood chances at times,
figuring out how to get fill and elevation using
organic matter for some of that. many things always
going on here. keeps me interested and amused.
love the wildlife and get frustrated by it at times
too. bunnies and deer. luckily for the most
important gardens where we grow most of the veggies
i have a nice tall fence.

our major crops are strawberries, tomatoes, beans,
peas, onions, garlic. and then there's a bunch of
stuff i grow as critter food (for the worms or for
wildlife). and then many decorative flowers to keep
the pollinators happy. i try to keep something in
bloom then whole season and it seems to be working
as we always have bees around.


Fun fact, though bacteria is already plural, when refering to more than
one species of bacteria, it is correct to use the word, bacterias.

i'm currently doing a trial of probiotics and
was amused to find that some of the bacterial
species used are also those found in dirt.


I've posted enough times here that I really should introduce myself. My
name is obviously Bryan, and I'm a 53 YO happily married guy who is
fairly obsessed with edible gardening, though it took decades for me to
get good at it. I'm also into cooking from scratch. I've taken a
sabatical from working outside the home to finish my first novel, so I
have lots of time to devote to those two passions.

welcome.

i'm always interested in talking about pretty much
any garden topic if i have the time and experience.
many garden veggies i have no experience with so i
tend to hope others will fill in those gaps.


I've been on Usenet for 16+ years, mostly alt.punk (I'm an aged punk
rocker who sang in a crazy lefty fusion punk band for 10+ years), and
more recently, rec.food.cooking, where bad cooking and flame wars are
far too frequent. One thing that might be of interest to this NG, or
might not, is my layman's knowledge of dietary fats. rec.gardens.edible
seems to be mostly on-topic, and that is a happy thing.

i've read usenet since before the great renaming, but
only written later. way back it was fun that you could
read the entire newsfeed each day.

yes, i'm glad we're doing well in that regards too,
but it is a challenge for me to not reply to the OT
posts. also helps to mark threads [OT] for those who
have filters set up.

ah, so it is going to rain here after all. good
deal. i love not having to water and it gives me
a break to let my muscles catch up with my efforts.
each spring i have to work back into shape.


songbird