Posted on 12/11/2008 12:51:17 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Thanks for the ping, LOL, now we will have victory gardens.
Wish I could remember the post that I posted on our thread, it was a movement to plow the lawns of the White House and turn them into vegetable gardens.........LOL, good idea today.
Sounds like the perfect evening. Enjoy! :)
You forgot Okra and collards. (if in the south) Both do well, Okra in hot summer, Collard greens in the cooler months.
LOL!!!
It's pretty much the only thing I've had any luck with, since we live with deer and rabbits aplenty. The losses in shrubbery alone are in the thousands. All flowers must be place on hangers and lowered to be watered, or in second-story windowboxes. They even tear up crysanthemums and marigolds, two things they're not supposed to like, right out of the ground. My hydrangea, arbor vitae and holly are eaten down to a nub. The only plants I've had any luck with are catnip, pampas grasses and boxwood, but they will eat anything if they are hungry enough. They will rip out wire fences and tear down birdfeeders and lick them.
We have wild raspberries behind our property at the edge of the woods. The briar plot is about five feet by twelve feet and yields about two cups of raspberries for the entire season -- IF I get there before the birds. Are yours domesticated cultivars that are expected to yield better?
I bought them through a gardening catalog. Some are Heritage and the few berries that they produced were decent sized.
I understand that berries need to be thinned. The dead canes are supposed to be cut out. Not a pleasant job.
I have a friend who has cultivated ones in full sun and the plants were tall (about 7 feet) and produced a pretty good crop.
I’m beginning to see why raspberries so expensive in the grocery stores.
I have to say, I am really glad that this thread came about. I had plans to tear up my yard for a garden next year.
Now I’ll stick with containers and “Pick-UR-Own” places.
Thank you. Every couple of years I've been doing that with long-handled loppers, and I throw the sticky canes out in places where I think that trespassers come through, both deer and humans.
I just think the wild berries probably aren't as large or the canes as productive. I remember in Italy having a pastry with tiny, tiny strawberries that were almost brown, and wonderfully sweet -- I think they were wild or antiques.
When I think back to my days in the city, it seems that city dwellers did better growing things in containers and empty lots than the suburbanites do, probably because of the very hot sunlight and fewer trees. I've seen city people grow large grape arbors, every kind of vegetable and lots of types of flowers. The surrounding bricks and other masonry seem to absorb water and then give off minerals and mist that are pleasing to plants.
Here in the burbs, we have many restrictions on how you can fence, where you can garden (must be in the back, not the front) and so many natural pests like deer, snakes, rabbits, voles, and massive hordes of insects, that it is difficult to garden at all unless you are in older, unrestricted parts of town with lots of sunlight.
Pick-your-owns are great for bushelsful for canning or freezing.
We are far enough out of the city that there are several owner-operated produce stores that deal with local farms and sell at 1/3 to 1/2 the price of grocery chains, and the produce is more natural -- a few irregularites, but tastier and no wax coatings or shelf-life sprays. The one I like, for instance, always has many types of local apples, costing as little as 49 to 59 cents a pound.
Even if you go to a farm stand directly, they tend to try to get grocery-store prices; whereas they discount deeply to the independent produce dealers in exchange for steady, high-volume business. It keeps the independents' prices down.
“Not only is cheap food health and bad for the environment, but cheap food isn’t even cheap anymore.”
Is it me or is this sentence illiterate.
Public school education, followed by copious drug use and liberal arts degree from a third-rate college, I’m guessing.
Is it me or is this sentence illiterate.
Yes it is illiterate, and yours requires a question mark.
I know. I saw it when it was loading. And could do nothing to stop it. But that guy has an editor....lol
I am very suspicious that a whole lot of the financial mess that our country is in has been engineered to coincide with the last election and get the Dems in the White House. Nevertheless, my husband and I grow a garden almost every year.
I just like having fresh vegetables and food to can. It’s not really any cheaper if at all, but, being self-sufficient and learning more every year is very valuable to me.
I’ve found that if you surround deer tempting plants with plants in the nightshade family (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes) that the deer will avoid them. Last year the deer ate a lot of our garden. I tried this trick and lost nothing to the deer this year.
Thank you very much for this tip. If I ever move, I will try it. As it is, I live in one of those Neighborhood Nazi Association communities that restricts vegetable growing to the back yard, leaving all the ornamentals and shrubbery on the front and sides vulnerable.
Can you ping me with your original survival thread. I can’t find it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.