Growing your own veggie patch/fruit

[mrcfo]

Ever since my mother got concerned over how food is grown these days about 1 year ago, I got the incentive to grow out own little veggie and fruit supply. Fortunatelty we were blessed with pre planted apple, apricot, plum, fig and cherry trees so all it required was some nurturing.

So far, as I planted them in Jan 2004, I reaped my first harvest this year. Veggie wise it was carrots and potatoes. I encourage anyone out there either wanting to do something different or concerned about how food is grown today to give it a try.

The fruits aren't doing too well though, the apples are simply too small and rather sour, cherries seem to suffer from birds and poor growth ditto for the apricots. Only the fig and plum has produced good harvests. Use to have a grape orchard but gee, it was simply far too sour and we got rid of it.

Thinking about getting a lemon tree (easy to plant and maintain).

[Hanuman]

My parents just gave me a little chilli pepper plant that I can grow in my Apt. I'm so excited, except it's those little super hot devil thai peppers.

[thaite]

I've given up trying to have a garden. I don't think it's possible here. Container plants it is.

[heykitten]

Ah, my parents grow chinese vegs and assorted fruit trees (apple, lemon, feijoa, plum and other ones I forget.) in our backyard. :love:

[Faithless]

We grow tomatoes and green beans with the help of the nextdoor neighbor.

Two lemon trees, an orange tree, and a fig tree inherited from previous owners. :owner:

[BillHoo]

I've grown, grea peppers, Beefsteak Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, sunflowers, jalepenos, cucumbers, japanese eggplant, sugarsnap peas, and habanero peppers in two to four gallon containers on the patio of my townhouse.

I did this for 7 years before the old fogeys in my homeowner's association ratted me out for "illegal plants". According to our homeowner's association handbook, fruits and veggies are taboo. They threatendd to fine me $25 per day until I get rid of them. I just dragged the pots indoors.

I used to get a bumper crop each year. The trick was to start the seeds in February, just after valentine's day. By April, they are ready to put outside, by Memorial day, I get the first harvest.

In the fall, I spend a weekend taking all the dead plants and snipping them to pieces with garden sheers. I put them into a big rubbermaid storage tote with the topsoil from the past season. Mix in some kitchen wasteand sprinkle lightly with a two liter bottle of water. By spring (March) it smells like a sewer and I put it back into the planting containers with a little aged cow manure. The fertilizer is now "hot" meaning it will burn the roots of plants you put in there... lots of bacterial activity. They will wilt within a few hours if you put seedling in now.

I also prep the container. Put in two inches of coarse gravel and drill drain holes an inch above your gravel layer. this makes a reservoir of water that the roots can dip into in the hot weather when you might miss a watering.

Put in your compost mix. I leave it there for a month or so the bacteria can further break it down and cool down. Then I put in the plants a month later.

Dig a hole in the center big enough for the roots, put in an inch layer of fresh topsoil, put in your seedlings and cover with fresh topsoil. Water as needed to keep soil moist. Try not to drown them.

Veggies don't grow as large out of containers, but they can be proliferate! I got dozens of racquet-ball sized green peppers (perfect for stuffing or sliced for a single sandwich).

Pinch off some of the tomatoe flowers on each vine, so the remaining ones get more resources from the plant. they will grow bigger that way.

I would bring in my jalepeno and Habanero plants in the winter. Peppers take the longest time to sprout (3 months) But once they start producing, they keep going! They kept producing for three years before I got lazy and they froze outside one winter.

-Bill_H

[haplesshobo]

Originally Posted by mrcfo

The fruits aren't doing too well though, the apples are simply too small and rather sour, cherries seem to suffer from birds and poor growth ditto for the apricots. Only the fig and plum has produced good harvests. Use to have a grape orchard but gee, it was simply far too sour and we got rid of it.

Thinking about getting a lemon tree (easy to plant and maintain).

It could all depend on where you live, and if its optimal for those plants. If you live in Socal, then the lemon tree will grow fine. But, if you're in colder climate, then you need to grow lemon in pot and move it inside during winter so that might be a hassle.

[Chad]

Well I am planning for next year... preparing soil again. What do you all have planned for your gardens?

[Seamus]

I live in a hi-rise urban apartment, so I can't have a garden. Anyone know whether it's possible to grow tomatoes indoors? I know they need a lot of light, which I think may be kind of lacking here. I need a vegetable that grows well with moderate light at around 60 degrees. Chad, you have an awesome moustache. Do you use fertilizer to make that grow?

[Chad]

You would need more light and warmth I think to grow tomatoes. In a cool, dark apartment you could grow some herbs in pots.
I'm going to leave my mark on the landscape by planting some fruit trees. Jujube trees are pretty hardy and can deal with most types of soil. I realize that I probably will have moved elsewhere before these trees ever begin to produce fruit but I'm going to do it anyways so that maybe my name will appear in some future historical accounts of my county as the first man to introduce jujubes to Denton county.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Chad

maybe my name will appear in some future historical accounts of my county as the first man to introduce jujubes to Denton county

You aren't moving East to Collin county ? I thought you wanted to be the first jujube planter in Plano ?

[Chad]

Haha, wtf? DOn't ever talk to me about Plano.

[pikachupacabra]

Look out, you may be killed for being a jew lover for planting them.

har har har.


For my parent's anniversary last year I transformed an empty patch of land of theirs into a herb/veggie garden. Not bad, but tons of work, I had to haul in like 60 pounds of top soil and then rake it in, not to mention all the rocks I had to dig out. I was too lazy to put in a sprinkler system, so they had to hand water it every day....whoops!

[Seamus]

I didn't know what a jujube was until I looked it up on wikipedia, and then I realized that I've had them throughout my life. I had only known it by its Chinese name. Are you going to grow them from seeds, or can you buy seedlings from the store?

[bluemonq]

i thought you were talking about these: