Growing your own fruits and vegetables

[Anonymous]

It is time consuming because I have a big garden, and it’s a passion so I don’t mind spending the time.
A long time ago when I was starting out a wise gardener advised me to focus on bang for the buck with fruits and vegetables. So I grow tomatoes, many kinds of pepper except bell peppers, many kinds of beans, okra, cucumbers and eggplant. I like the variety offered by seed catalogs and have figured out what works best for my yard. I also grow lots of herbs. I buy my dill and parsley because the swallotail caterpillars love the ones I plant.
For fruits I grow blueberries, currants and figs. I had raspberries and blackberries but they were too unruly for my small space so I gave them away. I don’t grow anything I need to spray.
I’m not sure I save any money since I do spend a fair amount on fertilizers, mulch and paying for labor. But it’s a very enjoyable pastime and we love having exotic produce all season for ourselves and to share.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is time consuming because I have a big garden, and it’s a passion so I don’t mind spending the time.
A long time ago when I was starting out a wise gardener advised me to focus on bang for the buck with fruits and vegetables. So I grow tomatoes, many kinds of pepper except bell peppers, many kinds of beans, okra, cucumbers and eggplant. I like the variety offered by seed catalogs and have figured out what works best for my yard. I also grow lots of herbs. I buy my dill and parsley because the swallotail caterpillars love the ones I plant.
For fruits I grow blueberries, currants and figs. I had raspberries and blackberries but they were too unruly for my small space so I gave them away. I don’t grow anything I need to spray.
I’m not sure I save any money since I do spend a fair amount on fertilizers, mulch and paying for labor. But it’s a very enjoyable pastime and we love having exotic produce all season for ourselves and to share.

Can you share which types you plant on those plants?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It can be time consuming, but IMO, I like that I am eating fresh from my garden, and it tastes different. It's also a hobby, and my workout (I hate exercising).

We grow
lettuce
zuchinni
tomatos
strawberries
peppers
sugar snaps
cucumber

We tried carrots, but they tasted a bit odd to me. Maybe too used to grocery ones. One year we grew a pumpkin and made pumpkin pie with it


You might want to move this to the gardening forum.

and we have two fruit trees that bear a fair amount of fruit. I love my fruit trees.

I live in a regular suburban subdivision, but we do have a privacy fence to try to keep the deer and rabbits out. I can't keep the squirrels out no matter how hard I try. If someone can find a way to do that, you would make a fortune.

What kind of fruit trees? We’re moving soon and have room for fruit trees. We’re looking for something low maintenance that will do well in this area.

Cherry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fig trees are super easy.

Mine dies every year and then grows like a bush.

Mine too. And produces figs so late they never have time to ripen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fig trees are super easy.

Mine dies every year and then grows like a bush.

Mine too. And produces figs so late they never have time to ripen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It can be time consuming, but IMO, I like that I am eating fresh from my garden, and it tastes different. It's also a hobby, and my workout (I hate exercising).

We grow
lettuce
zuchinni
tomatos
strawberries
peppers
sugar snaps
cucumber

We tried carrots, but they tasted a bit odd to me. Maybe too used to grocery ones. One year we grew a pumpkin and made pumpkin pie with it


You might want to move this to the gardening forum.

and we have two fruit trees that bear a fair amount of fruit. I love my fruit trees.

I live in a regular suburban subdivision, but we do have a privacy fence to try to keep the deer and rabbits out. I can't keep the squirrels out no matter how hard I try. If someone can find a way to do that, you would make a fortune.

What kind of fruit trees? We’re moving soon and have room for fruit trees. We’re looking for something low maintenance that will do well in this area.

I have a peach tree that does well with minimal effort. The peaches taste so much better than the store. We eat tons of peaches for a few weeks, I make a bunch of jam, and I freeze some for pies and smoothies in the middle of winter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is time consuming because I have a big garden, and it’s a passion so I don’t mind spending the time.
A long time ago when I was starting out a wise gardener advised me to focus on bang for the buck with fruits and vegetables. So I grow tomatoes, many kinds of pepper except bell peppers, many kinds of beans, okra, cucumbers and eggplant. I like the variety offered by seed catalogs and have figured out what works best for my yard. I also grow lots of herbs. I buy my dill and parsley because the swallotail caterpillars love the ones I plant.
For fruits I grow blueberries, currants and figs. I had raspberries and blackberries but they were too unruly for my small space so I gave them away. I don’t grow anything I need to spray.
I’m not sure I save any money since I do spend a fair amount on fertilizers, mulch and paying for labor. But it’s a very enjoyable pastime and we love having exotic produce all season for ourselves and to share.

Can you share which types you plant on those plants?

Tomatoes: Sunsugar, Sweet Million, Indigo Drops, Sunrise Bumblebee, Mortgage Lifter, Green Zebra, Marianna’s Peace, San Marzano Redorta, Kellog’s Breakfast, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Jaune Flamme, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim
Peppers: cayenne, Thai, jalapeños, serrano, Habanada, habanero, Trinidad Perfume, Aconcagua, Giant Marconi, shishito, pimiento de Padron, banana, Fatalli, Corbaci, Jimmy Nardello, Himo togarashi
Beans: Marvel of Venice, Blauhilde, anellino, yardlong, tricolor pole bean mix
Okra: Heavy Hitter, Stewart’s Zeebest, Burmese, Fife Creek, Jing Orange, Okinawa Pink
Eggplant: Ichiban, Kurume, Pingtung long, Fengyuan purple, Little Fingers, Fairy Tale, Rosa Biance
Cucumbers: lemon, Armenian and regular pickling cukes
I get my seeds from Tomato Growers Supply, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Seeds from Italy.
I also buy peppers, eggplants and tomato plants from Cross Country Nurseries.

[Anonymous]

You could talk to my 13-year-old who is growing pumpkins, cucumbers, corn, green beans, onions and sunflowers as a pandemic hobby. She has a very green thumb. I think she would tell you that good gardening is intense. You must visit your garden every day, water it, pay attention to it. It doesn't grow without your help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tomatoes and zucchini - easy and worth it in my opinion.

I have had blueberry bushes for years and each year, I get maybe 17 blueberries in total. That does not really put a dent in our blueberry consumption.

My blueberry bush has never produced any fruit. The birds keep eating it all. It's been llke six years or something.

Same for the rasberry bush.

Blackberry bush fruit is too tart.

I'm the PP who also has fruit trees.

My raspberry and blueberries are doing great!! I do net them once the fruit is set, though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fig trees are super easy.

Mine dies every year and then grows like a bush.

Mine too. And produces figs so late they never have time to ripen.

I read somewhere to remove all the leaves to the stem that has figs you want to ripen. I did it as a test to 1 stem and it worked. Then I got a frost.

[Anonymous]

When I lived in an apartment, I had a plot in a nearby community garden. In that case, I definitely got a lot more out of the garden than I put into it, because the plot was already there and it was fenced to keep critters out. The gardeners would often team up to put in a bulk compost order. There were certain pests that tended to proliferate, but I had a bumper crop of tomatoes every year and would can sauce, salsa, etc. Of course, this was pre-kids and I had the time to visit multiple times a week and do this sort of preserving!

At our house, we spent a fair amount of time and $$ setting up the garden and have had to upgrade/troubleshoot over the years. Even though I have more space to rotate from year to year, I have had more issues with tomato diseases and I keep having to upgrade the bird/squirrel defenses. I feel like I'm officially moving into the $100 tomato category but if this year's contraption works maybe it will be worthwhile, lol.

I really like growing greens and herbs because provided you keep the rabbits out they are easy and cheep to grow from seed. Garlic is easy too, I generally only have a couple months out of the year where I have to buy garlic from the market. Other vegetables vary from year to year depending on weather conditions and pests. I've given up on blueberries and strawberries but the raspberries have taken off.

It's definitely a hobby for me and I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it! My advice would be t start small and accept there will be some trial and error, don't put too much pressure on yourself.

[Anonymous]

Grow easy stuff - herbs, spices, beans, tomatoes. Require little care, and will produce enough to make it worth it. There have been ample times where I didn't have a veggie for dinner and my green beans and tomatoes were the save.

Be patients with the bush fruit - the berries - as that will take a few years to give you a significant harvest. It helps if you have honey bees to expedite it.

Fwiw, after 3 yrs, our blue berry and raspberry bushes are super over flowing with berries. I haven't purchased berries from the store in a few weeks. And I can feeeze/preserve them so I'll have some for later.
Plus, the birds are eating cicadas and leaving my berries alone and our county is stepping up deer culling so deer are finally not so ubiquitous this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fig trees are super easy.

Mine dies every year and then grows like a bush.

Which variety? Not all are suited to the zone. Here is a good article on cold hardy fig trees: https://gardenerspath.com/plants/fruit-trees/best-cold-hardy-fig-trees/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fig trees are super easy.

I haven't been able to get more than a couple of figs off my tree. I prune it in February, etc. Nothing.


8 years this cursed fig has laughed at me--yes, it's biblical.

[Anonymous]

I planted 2 figs six years ago. I got one crop of edible fruit in 2016 and they were delicious. Every other year the figs formed too late to ripen. This year there are a lot of breba figs so I hope they ripen, though the taste is supposed to be inferior to the main crop.