Vegetable and Fruit Gardens - 2014 Edition.

I see subscriber Mel Hill has his first seedlings in anticipation of the thaw. Polar Vortex be damned.

We should be planting tomatoes and other vegetables in a couple weeks here in Southern California. With the mild winter, my one sugar snap pea plant keeps giving. Had great luck with heirloom lettuce, too. Not so good were the three broad bean, aka fava bean, plants. One died and the other two only yielded a few beans so far. Worst plants were broccoli and spinach.

Our two blueberry bushes have gone from blooms to green berries. May should be the month for blueberry pancakes!

Happy gardening!
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every year I tell myself I’m going to start a veggie garden. every year I don’t. Maybe this will be the year :smiley:

Tomatoes peppers and cukes in the ground.

It’s been really cold here over the past couple of weeks (it was 19 one night last week), so I’m starting later than usual. First plantings: peas, snow peas, various sorts of mustard greens, broccoli, and spinach.

Salad mix greens, kale, Swiss chard, orange tree, lemon tree, beets, arugula, radishes, carrots, red cabbage, squash, and a bunch of heirloom tomatoes were just planted. Hope this years crop will be good!

Weather here is still crazy so waiting until our “hard freeze” date for some plantings. In the ground - kale, beets, carrots, radishes, garlic, chives, asparagus, strawberries, and artichokes. Blueberries are getting some flowers and blackberry/raspberry vines are coming back to life. Lots more on deck.

Total garden newbie here. We just hired a landscaper to fix up our backyard and we’re planning on two 4’ x 8’ raised garden beds. Any advice? Common mistakes beginners make? We’re zone 19 and the beds will be in full sun. Our biggest challenge will be bunnies as they are rampant here.

I’m just gonna follow whatever people say. I’m planning on going to a homegoods/nursery this weekend and just seeing what I need. From what I’ve read

I’m going to make two beds about 2 feet apart. I’m going to have to kill the grass where I’m planning on putting it as I’d like to avoid using a landscape mat. Then just fill it up with soil/compost and line a drip system through it.

Pretty basic right? If zhi can do it I feel like I can do it too [snort.gif] [snort.gif]

Mainlander’s mom and dad went through great leap fwd and cultural revolution. Farming is in my DNA.

Next yr, I’m going French laundry garden style. I wonder is my HOA allows chickens…

your yard is already filled with poo, what will a few more chickens do? [snort.gif] [snort.gif]

I’m kind of the opposite. Every year I question how much money (plants, soil, etc) I should put out and how much effort is worthwhile. I usually say I’m going to plant fewer things then get all tempted at Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc. If I paid myself gardener wages of $12 an hour and factor in the purchases, I probably paid $20 a pound for tomatoes last year.

I vow to stick to a small number of tomatoes, some hot peppers, and some herbs this year. Plus we have those medflies in this area.

WTH! my gardener costs a lot more than $12 an hour, guess it’s time review the contract!

Anyways inspired by this thread tomatoes and peppers were planted last weekend. Pictures once i’m sure they will survive a month [wink.gif]

Everything is in the ground as of last weekend. 6 types of heirloom tomatoes, 3 types of bell peppers, 2 misc hot peppers, onions, garlic, corn and a bunch of misc herbs.

Artichokes sure are loving the heat, looks like we might have a few in a couple weeks.

Nice 'choke!

Too early to plant here- 70 saturday, 40 monday…with a chance of some snow.

The herb garden did very well over the winter, and it is lush with fragrant tarragon, Italian parsley, oregano, chives that have already blossomed, and various varieties of thyme.

I had taken a pumpkin I grew and placed on the grave of my deceased cat, Little Black, last October. It turned to mush over the winter, but the seeds resowed and I will have a pumpkin patch marking his grave - how cool is that! Looks like some squash, pumpkins, and corn have resown themselves in the garden boxes, but I will more than likely pull them out - I think they are not fully productive, ultimately.

My experience has been that waiting until later - maybe even June - is better for my garden. Two years ago was my best garden ever, and I put that in around June 20 after a couple of surgeries. Go figure.

So my farmer’s market has a bunch of plants for lettuce/tomatoes etc they are in the midst of growing. Any negative in buying these transplants for my first try opposed to seeding the raised bed myself?

Also the area I’m putting the bed in still has a decent amount of grass so the sprinkler will run over it (once every 3 days), is that too little water? too much?

Whatever the opposite of a green thumb is, i have it.

Charlie, I’m not Mr. Green thumb, and at times think I have a Black thumb. That’s why my favorite plants are cacti.

I’ve never even tried to grow tomatoes from seed. It’s way to easy to use the seedlings already growing. In fact the other day costco had some three packs of tomatoes ($6.99 total) that were gallon-size and already advanced. They were just basic hybrids (like Early Girl) and not heirloom, but I get tasty tomatoes from the more run of the mill hybrids and just don’t have a good crop from most of the heirlooms.

If your bed is in max sun, you will need watering every three days in your area. Depending on how much spray the heads give, a typical grass watering is probably more duration/volume than a veggie plant needs.

I’m ghetto and chinese. So I run my sprinklers as little as possible. :smiley::D:D

buy some radish seeds and just put them in your planter box. 28 days and you will have some nice radishes and pretend you are a master gardener.