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Gardening...a really &quo
Chatterbox: Down to Earth
Gardening...a really &quo
Gardening...a really "Down to Earth" subject! Who gardens, in their own, other's gardens, a community garden plot, school garden, etc.? I have a small garden this year with beans, beets, sunflowers, tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, thyme, basil, mint, and parsley. The herbs are in separate pots, actually. I really love gardening. I volunteer at a conservancy for preserving historic sites and they have a wonderful butterfly garden which I often work in. You can make your own garden into a monarch butterfly habitat if you plant plants like milkweed and butterfly weed. You can also attract hummingbirds to your garden by planting long flowers that have a tube like center, or by getting a hummingbird feeder and filling it with sugar water.
Anybody have any advice for natural control of bugs, other pests such as rabbits, and diseases? I really don't want to use pesticides, but I am having a big problem with this, especially with the beans and beets (I had to replant the entire beet crop). My dad (the other gardener, who won't weed, but helps with everything else) and I put salt hay around the edges of the fence to keep out rabbits, and put cayenne pepper around. I'm not sure what to do about bugs, though.
Sorry for going on so long. I hope somebody likes to garden as much as I do. Gardening is very peaceful. Where I live, in Philadelphia, there are some community gardens in the city. I think they are a wonderful thing. A long time ago my family belonged to one. It really brightens up the city. Another great thing is Green Roofs, where you plant things on your roof, but I've gone on too long now.
I love gardening, too! I have lots of herbs in pots on my windowsills. Your garden sounds absolutely amazing!
Admin
submitted by Amy G., age 13, PA
(June 28, 2010 - 10:40 am)
(June 28, 2010 - 10:40 am)
I love to garden, too! I mean, I would probably be a disgrace to my name if I didn't... ;) So I had a garden with basil, carrots, broccoli, spinach, lupines (just around the veggies), a voluntary squash, snapdragons, and beets. I think that's it. I had chicken wire around the whole thing because a rabbit ate my garden last year, but something managed to eat my spinach and broccoli. Then the basil just decided to die (not enough water? wrong season? *looks around guiltily*). I got a bunch of carrots and they were delicious! Then the gophers took the rest down and the weeds that I had neglected to pull took over. The snapdragon eventually died, though it outlasted everything else. I love my garden, but I sometimes neglect it because I'm busy or lazy. I really shouldn't do that... But then, we subscribed to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture, where you pay a local farmer to get a certain amount of their crop each week for a season) and got milk crates full of veggies and greens. My family worked so hard trying to eat all the greens before the next crate came, that our gardens sort of died. It's quite unfortunate. Oh, and I forgot to mention our herb garden! We have lots of herbs: basil, oregano, sage, thyme, mint, and lemon balm. We also have chives and onions. These guys are alive and well and are used on a regular basis. So there's a positive. :)
Oh wow! Your garden sounds amazing! That's too bad about the bug problem. :( I'm not sure what to do about that, so sorry I can't help you! We've had rabbit problems that we fight with chicken wire, as I mentioned before. And we've actually put hardware cloth under our soil to keep away the gophers. My dad made this cool box thing too out of pipe and chicken wire that he put over my mom's garden to keep all sorts of animals out, and so far it's worked!
Philly is a wonderful place! I was born in that general area (on the New Jersey side), though I moved to CA when I was two and a half. Community gardens are really great! I think that it's so nice that everyone can garden even if they have an apartment or a place that doesn't accommodate a garden. And I've always loved buildings with gardens on the roof. It's really beautiful and is a great place to garden!
This is a great thread, Amy! Thanks!
~Leaf
(June 28, 2010 - 8:36 pm)
Of course you garden...you're a leaf! And that's cool that you, admin, (the one that posted my thread) gardens!
Your garden sounds wonderful! Especially the herbs. Our garden hasn't even produced veggies yet this year, though the tomatoes are starting to flower and the beans look almost ready. We don't have any gophers, and I don't think the rabbits are getting in, it's definitly the bugs. But the plants seem to be perking up a bit. It's really hot out and there are a lot of rainstorms where I live so the plants are growing quickly now, though they started out slowly.
We also belong to a CSA! We get lots of veggies from them, but we get to choose what kind we want each week, so when the veggies in the garden come in we can choose different kinds to get from the farm. We used to belong to a CSA where we had to do a work share for our food (we didn't have a garden then). That was really fun.
Does anybody have any farmer's markets near you? We have one very close by. Local farmers come there every week and sometimes local musicians play at the farmer's market! I am on the education commitee for the farmer's market with my mom and so we help plan and do educational events about agriculture for kids at the market.
Leaf, Philly is pretty wonderful! Except it's having some problems now. But I think it'll recover. I actually live in the suburbs (ugh in my opinion), but it is a suburb very very close to Philly. It's one of the closest suburbs. My brother lives in the city now, though, so I visit him often, and I go down there a lot because of a lot of homeschool programs and volunteer work.
(June 29, 2010 - 8:58 am)
Ooh, I have a Farmer's Market near me! It's really close and we always stop by and have been going for a long time. We sorta have this routine where we go to certain stands and get what we need. A lot of the farmers know us now, and know about our guide dogs (we raise guide dogs for the blind and bring them to the farmer's market). One farmer came to know our last guide dog pretty well, and would always say hi to him when we stopped by. A plus is that he sells fantastic fruit! It's California, what can I say? :) Anyway, it's great to have such a wonderful place right nearby! Oh, wow, that's really cool that you work in the education committee for the farmer's market! It's wonderful that you're doing that!
Good luck with the bugs and hope your plants continue to grow! My tree gives your garden good wishes and says hi to your plants. ;)
~Leaf
(June 29, 2010 - 8:20 pm)
My tree and I wholeheartedly support the movement of this thread. We suggest, thread, that you move to the top... Sorry, Amy!
~Leaf
(June 28, 2010 - 8:38 pm)
We had a gardening class in fifth grade. Groups of four or five students each got a little plot to plant vegetables in. I was in a group with some of my best friends -- A, A, and L. We named ourselves the Green Girls. We planted peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, parsley, carrots, and radishes. They all came up except the tomatoes, carrots and radishes, and they tasted really good.
(June 29, 2010 - 8:45 am)
Where I used to live, we had a really nice garden. We planted corn, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, cucumbers and zucchini, if I remember correctly. It was so nice to have fresh veggies in summer that tasted way better then anything you could buy at the store.
(June 29, 2010 - 11:15 am)
I admit that I don't garden much (I just don't have time), but my mom does, and I love to look at it, at least, and I help sometimes. We don't use pesticides either, and although our plants do get bitten up to some degree, we don't have any major problems with insects. Mainly, we accomplish this by doing everything we can to attract the things that would eat the harmful insects (dragonflies & damselflies, frogs & toads, spiders, lacewings, etc.), and they seem to like our yard (probably because so many of our plants are native to my area, so it's better for them), so it works for us. That wouldn't work well for people who don't want those sorts of creatures in their yards, though, and there are plenty of those, so...
I don't think I could name all the things we grow! Milkweed, oregano, cayenne peppers... All sorts of flowers and herbs, and some vegetables, too, and things that fit into none of those categories, or both (ferns, succulents...). Not to mention trees. We even have a lemon tree!
(June 29, 2010 - 6:24 pm)
I love to garden. I know i don't like bugs ethier. Once there was a daddy longlegs on my pillow at camp. I totally freaked out! The bad thing was I was on the top bunk and fell off.
(June 29, 2010 - 6:41 pm)
That's really cool that you raise seeing eye dogs, Leaf! It must be hard to part with the dogs after training them and getting to know them as puppies, though.
@Ima: We have a lot of spiders in our yard, so maybe I can scoop some up and dump them in our garden! Actually, the bug I least like is spiders, which is a little strange, because I try to convince myself that they are one of the most beneficial bugs. I like all other bugs, including bees, though. Actually, spiders aren't bugs! So I do like all bugs.
What kinds of fruit and veggies have people gotten in the garden so far? I've just gotten herbs 'cause I planted late. I plan to plant a 'winter garden' (kale, beets, carrots, turnips, etc.) after the summer plants are done. Of course then I won't have too much time to work on it, with school work 'n' all!
(June 30, 2010 - 3:35 pm)
@Amy: Yes, it is hard to give them up, but we know whatwe're in for in the beginning and we know that it's all for a good cause.My dad likes to say that giving them up is like sending a child off tocollege: you hope they do well and don't come back and live in your basement.The second dog we raised was actually the first dog we raised the wholeway (the first one we just did the first month or so and then another raisertook over). When we sent her back for her formal training, it was prettyhard, and there was, I think, this underlying feeling of loss. But thenwe saw her paired up with her blind person after she had graduated fromtraining, and every sing bit of loss or sadness I had felt just went out thewindow and was filled with overwhelming gladness, happiness, and, in a way,pride for our girl. I was so happy to see her with her blind owner, whowas going on about how she loved Mina(our dog's name). It was a wonderful experience. So, to wrap it up,yes it's hard, but it's in fact wonderful to go through the whole process: theexcitement of getting the puppy, the frustration with the misbehaving puppy,who is really cute and hard to resist, the pride when they do well, the sadnesswhen you give them up, the suspense while their in formal training back up atthe campus and could be dropped at any moment, and the feeling of sheer joywhen the graduate.
Now, back to gardens! :) I just remembered that a while back, we had fruit trees. There was the lemon tree that gave us a few lemons one year and then died. Then there was the tangerine tree that yielded tangerines a few years then died. The rest never gave us fruit and died. At one point, we planted avocado trees (you know, California, Land of the Almighty Avocado). At the time, I didn't like or had never eaten an avocado and wasn't about to eat one. (I was a very stubborn child and never tried food willingly.) Finally, I made a deal with my parents that as soon as the avocados came in from our trees, I'd try one. The avocados didn't come the first year, and I ended up just trying some. I thought is was okay, and grew to love it. I'm so glad I did, because those three trees never yielded anything and are now quite dead. Ah well.
Also, when we got our CSA box, we had so much stuff we didn't know what to do with, so we ended up getting a juicer. Now it is one of my favorite kitchen appliances. Our favourite recipe is as follows: spinach, apple, ginger, celery, and parsley. It is delicious and just gives me so much energy! Does anyone else juice greens and love it?
~Leaf
Wow, it's really great that your family does that with seeing eye dogs, Leaf. One of my close friends is waiting to get one now - but she has to wait till she has an apartment! -Admin
(July 1, 2010 - 7:37 am)
Thank you for explaining about the seeing-eye dogs! I like the sending off to college analogy; it makes sense, because the dogs are being trained to work in the world.
Wow, that's cool that you had fruit trees (until they died)! When my dad was young he had some apple and I think other fruit trees in his yard, and at harvest-time his mother and aunt would have a bake pie a thon!
We also have a juicer! My mom juices fruits and vegetables like every other day. Yum!
(July 3, 2010 - 9:36 am)
Oh, it was my pleasure. I really enjoy explaining the process and improving my explanation every time. I'll tell my dad that you like the college analogy; he'll like that.
It must have been wonderful for your dad to have fruit that he could just eat... and a bake pie-a-thon! That must have been really fun! Kokopelli would have enjoyed that... ;)
It's great that you also have a juicer! Aren't they just the best? And juice is just sooo delicious. *sigh of contentment*
Sorry for not responding for so long; I was at a music camp for ten days. (See the thread titled 'Back to the')
~Leaf
(July 13, 2010 - 11:46 am)