Official TEG Poll: What is your garden style?

[MatthewsHomestead]

I planned the rows about 3 inches too narrow or I would run the tiller through! Probably not the best idea though. I'm just babying the watermelon, peppers, and tomatoes now...... I do have some pigs though.... And goats.... And the chickens and pigs love each other..... I'll start storing up cardboard. Do I need to do much else to winterize it this fall? Last winter we spread wood ash, seasoned chicken poop and rabbit poo. Then it all got tilled in.... Probably why the grass growing in is so green compared to everything else. You look at our yard and pasture and the heat has nearly killed it all..... You look at the garden and it's a tropical oasis in comparison...

 

[Nyboy]

A good tip on getting large amounts of cardboard, check appliance stores. They throw away tons of cardboard, get friendly with staff maybe bring them eggs and you will be up to your eyesballs in cardboard.

 

[Crealcritter]

Small gardens here. A 25x50' spring fall garden and a 50x100' summer garden. Looking at expanding this year.

 

[Carla D]

Let me add that I have a STINK BUG garden.

Yuk!

 

[digitS']

Small gardens here. A 25x50' spring fall garden and a 50x100' summer garden. Looking at expanding this year.

Small?

If I remember the Coop Ext statistics right: the American families with vegetable gardens, average less than 1,000 square feet. That's smaller than your "spring fall garden."

Does that mean that this garden is not in production during the summer? I guess I'm being naive to ask and know that gardeners in the South often aren't growing things in those months. But, you have a "summer garden." Honestly, I like the idea of having different pieces of ground for growing veggies at different times of the year. Cover crops during the off-seasons?

Steve

 

[Crealcritter]

Small?

If I remember the Coop Ext statistics right: the American families with vegetable gardens, average less than 1,000 square feet. That's smaller than your "spring fall garden."

Does that mean that this garden is not in production during the summer? I guess I'm being naive to ask and know that gardeners in the South often aren't growing things in those months. But, you have a "summer garden." Honestly, I like the idea of having different pieces of ground for growing veggies at different times of the year. Cover crops during the off-seasons?

Steve

Hey Steve - yep you go the idea right. During the summer the spring and fall garden is dead. I only grow veggies in there that like cool weather in it. The summer garden is dead in the spring and fall, I only grow warm weather veggies in it. I have a large family so government statics never really work for us. We have way more than 2.4 childern -:lol

I think they are small gardens @ 1250 sqft & 5000 sqft.

 

[Trish Stretton]

I have a fruit garden at the moment....mainly because thats pretty much all that I'm harvesting from it this year, due to crazy working hours.
So, far, I havent had to buy any fruit at all and still have different types coming on soon.
Next year, (I'm in the Southern Hemisphere so my growing seasons are opposite to you topside lot), I'm looking at trying to grow those things I use the most of. I did start listing them out but it got quite long.

 

[Redd Tornado]

My garden style can only be described as "there appears to have been a struggle".

@Crealcritter I have a summer garden and an rest of the year garden too. (zone 8a) do you solarize your gardens? I started doing that last year to reduce the bug and fungus issues. It seems to have helped with the fungus and blight issues.

 

[ducks4you]

A good tip on getting large amounts of cardboard, check appliance stores. They throw away tons of cardboard, get friendly with staff maybe bring them eggs and you will be up to your eyesballs in cardboard.

ExACTLY!!! Good friend's office used to be down the hall, now have moved to a suite. She gave me the cardboard boxes from all of the new desks, etc., stacks 5 ft high. It is a great passive way to handle weeds. DON'T let anybody deter you from using cardboard with slick printing, either. Use what you get. I burn what I don't use, but this time of year I use up what I have.

 

[ducks4you]

I let my garden areas speak to me. Then my seedlings talk to me. Amidst the din of conversation, there emerges a garden.