Gardens, Farming and all things of our great ecology

POSTED BY: Mangolo
UPDATED: Friday, August 21, 2009 04:28
VIEWED: 7124
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TUJIAOZUO

Thursday, August 20, 2009 7:09 AM

I grew up on a small family farm really out in the middle of Nowhere, Central California (the nearest McDonalds? 20 miles away. The nearest Movie Theatre? 50). Cotton, tomatoes, corn, alfalfa, onions and a few times we've done lettuce, pumpkins and Zinnia flowers for seed companies.

Other than that my mom loves to garden, so the yards are well maintained and full of color, and for the past two years my dad has put a garden in outside of the fence for my Grandpa to putter around in. Both dad and Gramps seem to love the garden, and my dad being a farmer seems to like to expand and elaborate on it every year. Now its no longer a little plot, but two acres of corn, watermelon, squash, cucumber, eggplant and tomatoes all watered via some elaborate irrigation drip he cobbled together.

The produce we get is amaaaazing from the garden. A few nights ago I went and picked some tomatoes from there and immediately went and made bruschetta for the family. They all just about died

Your Indian Pirate Lord,
Ash

NIKI2

Thursday, August 20, 2009 4:55 PM

We, too, get stuff year round (just North of SF). I've been amazed to find that pansies (considered annuals elsewhere), IF they can survive the Summer, grow and bloom all through Winter into the next year and beyond.

Lots of what are considered "annuals" around here keep going, which is neat.

Asked hubby what kind of toms he wanted me to grow in my upside-down pots, and he said those little tiny ones that are so sweet. Found several varieties, and tho' the upside-down plants didn't go as nuts as soon as the one I have in a regular pot--and it's already putting out ripe toms and they're just getting started--they're now catching up fast. Find the upside-down thing fascinating, and easy to maintain.

I found a little greenhouse on e-bay that knocked my socks off. It's 6' x 8', 8' at the peak, and came with its own SHELVES (which are expensive) along both sides. Whether it'll last a second season remains to be seen--mostly my own fault if it doesn't as I took the plastic cover off to use it in Summer. But for something like $100-150 (I forget, it's been a while!), it let me plant TONS of sees and start growing in December! If it doesn't make it, I'll make another cover for it, but I was mightily impressed to get something that good for that cheap!

Actually, getting the long heat elements (which I also found relatively cheap in 4' lengths) was far more expensive than the greenhouse itself, tho' I got 4' grow lights cheap. All in all, it's an amazing setup for so little money, and it's my first year with seeds...got lots to learn but nonetheless LOTS of stuff came out and I've discovered the reason I couldn't save money year after year was how much I spent on PLANTS!

It's time to start again and I still haven't planted some of the seedlings (waiting for them to flower to find out their color and match/contrast them in pots). I can start stuff in Fall to overwinter and bloom in Spring, and all in all, for my first attempt at seeds and my first greenhouse planting in Winter, it's been fantastic.

Greenhouses are SO expensive, even the lightweight plastic-covered ones, that this was a real treat.

Hey, where in Central CA? You guys got the BEST growing...around here I have to battle fog. When it rolls OUT, hot and I have to water a lot, then it rolls back in and everything's too moist. NOT that I'm complaining; without that "natural air conditioning", we would fry in Summer. Still, it makes growing seedlings a real challenge!