Time to Start Planting Vegetable Gardens.

[GreenInstall]

Where I live, they don't let you plant anything in the ground.  So my wife has taken to growing stuff in pots and trays and such.  The corners of our back deck are lined with tomato vines and green bean stalks.  Pretty fun to take care of too - definitely a labor of love.

Can't wait to sample the fruits (and veggies!) of our labor.

Whoever thought that Victory Gardens would ever be en vogue again?

There is a site called www.renesgarden.com (I think that's the right spelling) that specializes in seeds for container gardening..I can tell you from experience, their cucumbers are awesome, we're on our third season of the same plants and they are still producing massive cucumbers.

[Bostech]

Is anyone growing watermelons ?

[braeburn]

http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=164

[Spence]

Anyone can plant a seed .ORG

[ronchamblin]

During the late forties and through the fifties, we had about a 1.5 acre garden on which we grew just about every kind of vegetable one can think of.  We sold the excess to a general store called Kissinger’s on the corner of Firestone and 103rd Road.

We canned or preserved most of the produce, and used it over the remainder of the year.  We had chickens, rabbits, guinea hens, pigs, goats, hogs, ducks, geese, turkey.. all kinds of animals, including a couple of white slaves we captured from further west, past Old Middleburg road.  In the distant westside in those days were some real isolated country folk.  We let the slaves loose back on that same road about 1955, as they were beginning to learn to read and stuff.

The preparation of the soil, the making of rows, the planting, and the weeding, which was done by me and the white slaves, and the picking of the fruit of our work, form good memories.  This kind of work engages nature in a special way, and makes one love the earth, allows one to sense how beautiful dirt can be, and how simple life can be. 

And as Stephen says in the beginning of this thread, we, who are entering into an era of even further declines in jobs, and a probable further worsening of the economy, might tender the idea of growing a garden, as it will not only remind us of a more humble way of living, but will prepare us for possible shortages, either because we cannot afford to buy the produce, or because, if things get really bad, the produce cannot be produced and distributed in quantity sufficient to supply the growing population. 

I recall specifically how wonderful it was to see the first fragile and tender sprouts emerging from the seed which was placed only days earlier just an inch or two below the surface.  And the growth was more rapid that one would think, as you could see the changes in two days growing. 

In the coming spring, I think I will start a half-acre garden in a space I have at my home south or Orange Park.  Thanks for the reminder Stephen and Spence.   

[sandyshoes]

Speaking of canning, do you all have pics or any info on the old canning kitchen - I've been told it was on Superior Street in the Woodstock section of town and had dirt floors, no screens on the doors or windows (!?) and of course no air conditioning.  They used to can food for the jail, in addition to the community using it to can their food.  Would love to see pictures and whereabouts sometime if you can dig up any.  Thx.

[mbwright]

This year I planted a variety of lettuce, and greens.  This warm weather has all of the plants confused.  Should I grow, or bolt (stop growing, and produce a flower spike)?  I have some very funny looking red sails lettuce.  I have stared 3 times, only to have warm weather.  It's nice to not be 40 degrees, but hard to grow winter crops.

[sandyshoes]

Thanks so much, Stephen...there was an original one long before this one was built in 1978.  Am just hoping for some more great info and pix of Jax history. 

[BridgeTroll]

This year I planted a variety of lettuce, and greens.  This warm weather has all of the plants confused.  Should I grow, or bolt (stop growing, and produce a flower spike)?  I have some very funny looking red sails lettuce.  I have stared 3 times, only to have warm weather.  It's nice to not be 40 degrees, but hard to grow winter crops.

I left a late season tomato plant in... last week I ate 3 very nice tomatoes... and have 5 more the size of baseballs nearly ready to pick...

[Overstreet]

Where I live there are trees and available partial sun is at a premium. The added threat of squirrels makes the garden a tough "row to hoe".  However squirrel does taste good with tomatoes, ocra, and other vegetables.

[BridgeTroll]

Where I live there are trees and available partial sun is at a premium. The added threat of squirrels makes the garden a tough "row to hoe".  However squirrel does taste good with tomatoes, ocra, and other vegetables.

A simple snare will help you out with that...

[buckethead]

The three "b"s:

Beans, Bullion, Bullets, Booze, Bicycles, Brothers (Sisters too) and Belligerence.

All a body needs to get through an economic collapse.

Anyone like me who has difficulty counting higher than two, would also benefit from having a solar powered calculator.