This coming season I will be planting my "first ever" garden! And
boy, am *I* excited.

Despite the fact that I will be also turning 50 next year, my
lifestyle has been such (until now) that I wasn't able to realize my
dream of having a garden.

The problem NOW is - Holy smoke! What do I plant? Sadly, I am not a
big vegtable eater so after carrots, radishes, peas, corn, tomatoes
(for my husband) and pumpkins (for halloween!!!), I am "fresh" out of
ideas.

Tell me what YOU grow in your garden to give me some ideas guys, won't
you?

Thanks in advance.

Em
Be careful what you wish for....

In article ,
Auntie Em wrote:

This coming season I will be planting my "first ever" garden! And
boy, am *I* excited.

Despite the fact that I will be also turning 50 next year, my
lifestyle has been such (until now) that I wasn't able to realize my
dream of having a garden.

The problem NOW is - Holy smoke! What do I plant? Sadly, I am not a
big vegtable eater so after carrots, radishes, peas, corn, tomatoes
(for my husband) and pumpkins (for halloween!!!), I am "fresh" out of
ideas.

Tell me what YOU grow in your garden to give me some ideas guys, won't
you?

Thanks in advance.

Em
Be careful what you wish for....

Well, I have learned to only grow what we really like to eat. If you
decide to grow say chard for fun guess what will be the most prolific
thing in the garden? Then you are stuck with mountains of the stuff and
the neighbors will stop answering the bell when you come with armfulls.

I do grow a variety of herbs. It's really fun to go out and snip chives
for the baked potatoes or basil for the spahetti sauce etc. I've had
fairly good luck with them and it's nice to be able to cook with fresh
ones in season.

I also do strawberries in a couple of pots. We don't get a lot, but
enough to nibble on. Do you like berries?

marcella

Hi, first of all, grow what you (or your husband) like to eat.

Don't start too big. It's easy to think too big and end up with too much
for an inexperienced gardener to deal with. It ends up being more work
than fun and/or a big weedy mess.

On the other hand, I have seen people dig up a little 8 x 8 foot area
and think they can grow everything in that space. I watched my wife's
cousin do this and he then decided he must have bad soil or something.
What really went wrong was that he had enough planted in there to fill a
20 x 20 foot garden. Everything thing "looked" fine in June but by July
the plants were crowded and none of them had the room they needed to
produce anything. Follow the spacing recommended on the seed pack or in
books and don't stick in extras because you have seeds or plants left over.

Corn is fun but it uses up a lot of space. I grew a garden for several
years and claimed I would never grow corn because I didn't have the
space. I like corn, and now over half the garden goes to corn. If you
grow corn, remember it is a grass and needs lots of nitrogen to do its
best. I actually side dress with lawn fertilizer when the plants get a
foot tall or so. (Doing that with tomatoes would be a big mistake).
I now have a garden in 2 corners of the yard. One garden is just for
corn and pumpkins. In that garden I plant the earlier corn and plant it
a little sparse so I can plant pumpkins in with it. The early corn is
done and drying up when the pumpkins are sizing up and getting ready to
ripen. I like the combination.

Steve
By the way, say hi to Dorothy and Toto for me.


Auntie Em wrote:

This coming season I will be planting my "first ever" garden! And
boy, am *I* excited.

Despite the fact that I will be also turning 50 next year, my
lifestyle has been such (until now) that I wasn't able to realize my
dream of having a garden.

The problem NOW is - Holy smoke! What do I plant? Sadly, I am not a
big vegtable eater so after carrots, radishes, peas, corn, tomatoes
(for my husband) and pumpkins (for halloween!!!), I am "fresh" out of
ideas.

Tell me what YOU grow in your garden to give me some ideas guys, won't
you?

Thanks in advance.

Em
Be careful what you wish for....

"Auntie Em" wrote in message
...

The problem NOW is - Holy smoke! What do I plant? Sadly, I am not a
big vegtable eater so after carrots, radishes, peas, corn, tomatoes
(for my husband) and pumpkins (for halloween!!!), I am "fresh" out of
ideas.

That sounds like plenty right there, especially if what you have is a
typical suburban plot. Do you eat salads? You might want to consider
lettuce, too.

I'd also put in parsley, just because it's handy to have it growing for when
you need a sprig or two. Parsley is also delicious. I had a friend who
thought I was very strange because I would eat the parsley on my plate -- he
considered it wholy a garnish. Sadly, he died of colon cancer at a
relatively young age, and I wonder if he had eaten more greenery like that,
he would have been better off.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

Auntie Em,

Geographical location? In GA we have year round gardens. So it depnds on
what time of year! If you like salads, do various greens, spinach, lettuce,
etc. Cilantro only grows in the winter here.

Soil type? We have clay so any long carrots do not do well.

Sunlight?

I agree with the others on herbs. If you cook, fresh herbs are the key.

Start modestly and expand!

Good Luck! And sorry if you are in Kansas...

John!

"Auntie Em" wrote in message
...
This coming season I will be planting my "first ever" garden! And
boy, am *I* excited.

Despite the fact that I will be also turning 50 next year, my
lifestyle has been such (until now) that I wasn't able to realize my
dream of having a garden.

The problem NOW is - Holy smoke! What do I plant? Sadly, I am not a
big vegtable eater so after carrots, radishes, peas, corn, tomatoes
(for my husband) and pumpkins (for halloween!!!), I am "fresh" out of
ideas.

Tell me what YOU grow in your garden to give me some ideas guys, won't
you?

Thanks in advance.

Em
Be careful what you wish for....

Are you looking for landscaping suggestions, or garden suggestions?

How cold are your winters, how hot and long your summers?

You need to narrow things down for us.

Hi, first of all, grow what you (or your husband) like to eat.

Don't start too big. It's easy to think too big and end up with too much
for an inexperienced gardener to deal with. It ends up being more work
than fun and/or a big weedy mess.

On the other hand, I have seen people dig up a little 8 x 8 foot area
and think they can grow everything in that space. I watched my wife's
cousin do this and he then decided he must have bad soil or something.
What really went wrong was that he had enough planted in there to fill a
20 x 20 foot garden. Everything thing "looked" fine in June but by July
the plants were crowded and none of them had the room they needed to
produce anything. Follow the spacing recommended on the seed pack or in
books and don't stick in extras because you have seeds or plants left over.

Corn is fun but it uses up a lot of space. I grew a garden for several
years and claimed I would never grow corn because I didn't have the
space. I like corn, and now over half the garden goes to corn. If you
grow corn, remember it is a grass and needs lots of nitrogen to do its
best. I actually side dress with lawn fertilizer when the plants get a
foot tall or so. (Doing that with tomatoes would be a big mistake).
I now have a garden in 2 corners of the yard. One garden is just for
corn and pumpkins. In that garden I plant the earlier corn and plant it
a little sparse so I can plant pumpkins in with it. The early corn is
done and drying up when the pumpkins are sizing up and getting ready to
ripen. I like the combination.

Steve
By the way, say hi to Dorothy and Toto for me.


Auntie Em wrote:

This coming season I will be planting my "first ever" garden! And
boy, am *I* excited.

Despite the fact that I will be also turning 50 next year, my
lifestyle has been such (until now) that I wasn't able to realize my
dream of having a garden.

The problem NOW is - Holy smoke! What do I plant? Sadly, I am not a
big vegtable eater so after carrots, radishes, peas, corn, tomatoes
(for my husband) and pumpkins (for halloween!!!), I am "fresh" out of
ideas.

Tell me what YOU grow in your garden to give me some ideas guys, won't
you?

Thanks in advance.

Em
Be careful what you wish for....

"Auntie Em" wrote in message
...

The problem NOW is - Holy smoke! What do I plant? Sadly, I am not a
big vegtable eater so after carrots, radishes, peas, corn, tomatoes
(for my husband) and pumpkins (for halloween!!!), I am "fresh" out of
ideas.

That sounds like plenty right there, especially if what you have is a
typical suburban plot. Do you eat salads? You might want to consider
lettuce, too.

I'd also put in parsley, just because it's handy to have it growing for when
you need a sprig or two. Parsley is also delicious. I had a friend who
thought I was very strange because I would eat the parsley on my plate -- he
considered it wholy a garnish. Sadly, he died of colon cancer at a
relatively young age, and I wonder if he had eaten more greenery like that,
he would have been better off.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky