Has anyone started a garden for this year? If so, what did you plant?

I just decided to have some strawberries and blueberries. We put them out last weekend when it was really nice, but now it is extremely cold, so I don't know what will happen to them. Hopefully they'll be okay.

I am branching out from the usual garden. I have planted an apple and peach tree, and have 10 blueberry plants. I intend to have a large blueberry patch, so this will be ongoing for a while. I have watermelons sprouting. My plums are starting to ripen, and for the first time my Loquat made fruit. They were good but did not last long. I did harvest and plant some of the seeds. And my red okra has sprouted. I have 3 garden areas: the first is at the shore so things need to be salt tolerant. The second is ten miles away in town, all I have to look out for there is the neighbors eating my garden! The third is 35 miles north of #2, up in the woods and this garden is deer repellant. Garden #1, being at the shore, enables me to grow tomatoes in the winter (something to do with the moisture in the air), which is impossible at #2 and #3. Garden #3 is definitely cooler, so I can grow different things up there. It is a rewarding challenge. <img src="/images/graemlins/rolling.gif" alt="" />

Wow! That sounds awesome - other than the neighbors eating eating the food from your garden!

My FIL plants a HUGE garden, enough to feed 10 people, so we usually get things from his garden, with permission, of course! LOL He plants the usual - potatoes, beans, corn, onions, squash, lettuce, peppers, but this year added some raspberry plants. He also already has grapes and blueberries, but we decided to do our own blueberries this year. I can't wait!

Yes we planted 6 tomato plants yesterday. I usually only plant 3 or 4 so went overboard on it.
Darlene

Wow, Mammmasita, you are going to have TONS of tomatos!

What do you usually do with all of your tomatos? My aunt makes a lot of salsa (love it!) and my husband's aunt makes a lot of spaghetti sauce (really, really love it!). My mom and mother-in-law usually make a lot of tomato juice with their tomatos and don't usually make anything else. And, of course, everyone has lots of tomato sandwiches! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I only have a small area so I have mostly tomatoes, peppers and zucchini but also did put in a cucumber and cantelope. Onions, garlic and chives doing well. Already have a zuccini that is about 4 inches long. Hope they all turn out.

I'm planning to start a container vege garden in spring. We're house hunting at the moment, so I want to be able to shift my garden to the new place mid-season if I need to.

I could start planting now because winter is a good planting time because it is our wet season, but I just know I will run out of motivation in this cold. I don't even go out of doors except to collect the mail.

I'm looking forward to having lovely fresh veges I can pick from my own garden. And fruit - I want to plant strawberries and some other fruits like miniture oranges or something. My husband doesn't eat berries, or any fruit really, so I don't bother buying them just for me, besides the expense. I know I'd get more vitamins in me if I had berries and fruit I could pick on.

Things are getting so expensive and the quality is not great. We had an expose too the other day about how long (months!) the supermarkets were holding fruit and veges in cold storage before putting them on the shelves. Makes you wonder whether there is any nutritional value left in that stuff. I've switched to buying from the little fruit and vege stall instead now, rather than the supermarket, but growing stuff I have complete control over would be even better.

I recently moved to the Pacific Northwest and my housemates are avid gardeners who've worked this yard for a few years now. They put up a cloche to get seedlings started earlier with more protection.

We've got three kinds of lettuce, snow peas, fava beans, carrots, beets, two types of spinach, parsnips, cilantro, green beans and tomatoes. Those last two are just starting, but the rest we're either eating off the vine or on second plantings/eatings. Plus an extensive herb garden with fresh sages, mints, oregano, lavender, rosemary, and a bay tree.

We don't have room for a garden in our new place, the yard backs up to the woods and it's very boggy.

Anyhow, we do have some container plants on the back deck, but it seems to get too much sun so I have to relocate the plants.

We have a cherry tomato in a hanging pot and a bunch of herbs.

Our housing devpt has a small nature trail with berries they tend to that residents can pay a small fee to pick, so we've been doing that.

Meg