# Garden !



## rjdpj (Dec 14, 2012)

Okay so this summer ill be doing a garden and i know I'm going to grow herbs for teas and stuff but what else should i grow ? I have plenty of room , so give me a list and tips on how to grow them more efficiently !


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Grow what you will eat and eat what you grow ...

It is that simple ... Happy gardens.


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## rjdpj (Dec 14, 2012)

*Andi said:


> Grow what you will eat and eat what you grow ...
> 
> It is that simple ... Happy gardens.


Well said !


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

I'm sorry ... that sounds a little short after I reread it. 

How about ... what are some of the things you know you (family) like to eat (lettuce, green beans & etc)and we will go from there.


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

Are you a Georgia native? SURELY you like collards......


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

Grow things that you are able to preserve for winter through canning or drying.

I do beets, 2 types of beans, carrots, potatoes, pepper, tomato, broccoli, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, peas, cucumber and a few other things. Whatever doesn't get used fresh is canned, dried or frozen. 

For dinner tonight we had pork chops with mashed potatoes, wax beans and homemade applesause. Both sides were from last years garden.


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## rjdpj (Dec 14, 2012)

kyredneck said:


> Are you a Georgia native? SURELY you like collards......


Well , don't you just know your southerns  ! Yes i am and i do !


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

rjdpj said:


> Well , don't you just know your southerns  ! Yes i am and i do !


Collards dehydrate well and taste great rehydrated and cooked up, grow all you can.


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

Davarm said:


> Collards dehydrate well and taste great rehydrated and cooked up, grow all you can.


Can you direct me to a post/link on how you do it, including rehydrating and cooking? I'd appreciate it.


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## Cud579 (Apr 26, 2010)

www.easy-food-dehydrating.com and www.dehydratetostore.com
I have used both websites for dehydrating and rehydrating instructions. Both are very informative.


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## oif_ghost_tod (Sep 25, 2012)

I find it so hard to think about gardening as we just shoveled out from a winter storm.

When it is finally spring I will definitely be quadrupling my garden from last year and will be growing all kinds of stuff.

I would suggest growing carrots, radishes, lettuces, several types of beans, peas, broccoli, brussel sprouts, tomatoes, cucumbers (mmmm...pickles), and anything else you enjoy eating.

If you won't eat it (and no one else in your family will either) then don't even bother buying the seeds, as your efforts will be better used on growing the things you enjoy.


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## PackerBacker (Dec 13, 2012)

If i grew nothing else I'd still have to have collards and spinach. broccoli'd have to be right after those.

My best spinach is started indoors and set out as plants.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

kyredneck said:


> Can you direct me to a post/link on how you do it, including rehydrating and cooking? I'd appreciate it.


I dont think I've ever posted a "How-To" on it but its easy to do. Just cut the thick center vein out, chop the leaves into desired size and put them in your dehydrator. I dry them at a low heat until they are completely dry and crispy.

To rehydrate them, I just pour boiling water over them and let them sit for a while and eat with a little butter. If you prefer, you can boil them with ham, bacon or "fat back" like they were fresh.

Collards are pretty resilient, they dehydrate and cook up pretty much like fresh without loosing much in the process.

If the center veins that were cut out are tender, I chop dehydrate them separately and put them in soups and stir fry's. I dry them separately because they take so much longer to dry than the rest of the leaves.


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

Thank you Davarm! Lord willing I'm gonna try some dried collards this year, just to see.

...and congrats on your book! That's no easy task.


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## cqp33 (Apr 2, 2012)

When my wife and I started growing a garden I began to eat things I have never eaten before like tomato, salads, squash and others as well! Now I can't seem to get enough of them! I grew up a city boy though so once I was able to put some of my own sweat into a garden it just seemed right that I ate whatever we were going to grow! My $.02 is that if you grow you should eat it, if cooked right anything can become palatable and after a while you may even enjoy eating it too! I sure did


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## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

Fruits such as strawberries and raspberries will serve you well too. Don't forget the corn and potatoes, garlic, onions etc.


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## AuroraHawk (Sep 12, 2012)

If you want to have some fun and do some creative landscaping, do some container gardening and be creative. This year I am taking all of my D.S.O.s old blue jeans (they look new until you look at the arse end), patching the worn spots, then sewing the legs closed at the bottom of the seat, across the knees, and at the hems. Once I have done all that sewing I am going to cut the front of the leg, below the seam at the seat, and below the seam at the knee. The seat of those jeans will be planted with potatoes (they like lots of fresh air in their soil), the thighs will be planted with strawberries and the legs will be planted with herbs. All of the soil and plants/seeds will be added after I have used construction staples to staple the jeans to the top of our privacy fence.

Somewhere I have an old hanging shoe organizer with a bazillion pockets in it. That will be stapled to the fence and each pocket will have a different pot-herb for cutting as needed throughout the summer.

I'll be purchasing a roll of re-mesh/re-wire from Lowe's and making climbing cages for our tomatoes, cucumbers, midget muskmelon, pole beans (scarlet runner, purple pod, yard long and Blue Lake) and midget watermelon. If we have enough planting space, I'll use those cages for gourds, acorn/butternut squash and miniature pumpkins too.

I have severe osteoarthritis in both knees so I do all raised bed or container gardening. Anything that can be caged and climbing will leave more available ground space for crops that won't climb, such as spinach, fennel, dill, carrots, beets, chard, mixed salad greens, kale, broccoli, and anything else that I can't think of at this moment. I think the only climbing/vine plant that won't be caged is the sweet potatoes. Those will be planted in a 40 gallon horse trough and allowed to trail over the sides.

We have an asparagus raised bed which will be expanded this spring. Once that is expanded, planted, and established, I hope to put in raised beds for Jerusalem artichokes, horseradish and rhubarb. I've been looking through seed catalogs for days, trying to remember another perennial crop that I wanted to put in a raised bed but I'll be dogged if I can think of what it was. :shrug:

Gardens can be a lot of work but they can be a lot of fun too. If you don't have a subscription to Mother Earth News, it will pay to get one. Their gardening articles are fantastic, as are the articles in Organic Gardening. Both subscriptions will pay for themselves quickly.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

AuroraHawk said:


> If you want to have some fun and do some creative landscaping, do some container gardening and be creative. This year I am taking all of my D.S.O.s old blue jeans (they look new until you look at the arse end)...
> 
> (Cut for length)
> 
> Gardens can be a lot of work but they can be a lot of fun too. If you don't have a subscription to Mother Earth News, it will pay to get one. Their gardening articles are fantastic, as are the articles in Organic Gardening. Both subscriptions will pay for themselves quickly.


A cheap climbing cage I've used is the 2 ends of a baby gate. We go through the cheap ones from Walmart as my DH trips on them when he jumps over and they break. I have one now I am saving for this season. The clamp arm is snapped and I need to take off the excess hardware but they are great for peas and beans.


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## AuroraHawk (Sep 12, 2012)

Other climbing apparatus can be straight sticks formed into a teepee, a long piece of pipe or pvc, with a T at the top to hold binder twine, or other sturdy string, that is tied to a stick/peg/whatever, that is pushed into the ground. Pieces of the 4x8 trellis found at Lowes and Home Depot, trees, fences, and all sorts of other things that one can think of to use.


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