Hurrah, I am starting some of my seeds this weekend!

Starting a garden was an amazing way to make myself eat cleaner, as well as to eat some things that were previously not routinely on my menu.

What do you like to grow (and then eat! )?

Hoo boy, I love to garden!!

Perennials: Asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, chives, sage, oregano, parsley, thyme. I always try for a perennial rosemary, but I inevitably get at least one hard frost each year that kills it. :/

Annuals: Lettuce, spinach, beets, peas, radishes, carrots, onions, garlic, arugula, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans, corn, potatoes, celery, artichokes, onions, shallots, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, brussels sprouts, pumpkins, squash, sweet potatoes, dill, Swiss chard. In a good year, also melons!

Fruit trees: Pears, plums, apples. Had a fig but the dang voles got the roots and killed it.

Berry canes: Boysenberry, raspberry, black raspberry, blueberry, blackberry. The blackberries grow wild everywhere here.

Love it all!!!

LOVE growing heirloom tomatoes - the yellows, etc. I used to shy away from eating them until I actually TRIED them ... funny how that works Now i love them and they're so expensive at the store, so I save a lot during the summer as I make a lot of bruschetta. Also grow grape tomatoes, all colors of bell peppers and sometimes strawberries, but I lose those to the birds too often, so think I'm skipping that this year.

I'm more of a flower gardener and I'm looking forward to my daffodils blooming in the next two weeks... would love to have the time (need to commit to it) and space to do a full victory-type garden.

I've gotten heavily into gardening these past few years, though more for flowers than edibles. Last year, though, I did grow cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, mini sweet peppers, bell peppers, broccolo, and strawberries. I also attempted to do a grape vine but the poor thing got swallowed out by other plants and didn't survive.

Also, I have two miniature banana trees. They're living indoors now, but still not big enough to produce fruit.

Oh, we also grew basil, sage, oregano, chives, rosemary, and some other stuff that isn't coming to me right now. I think I might expand the edible range of my garden a bit this year.

This reminds me that I should also get going on starting my seeds...

I grow mainly fruit, as the trees produce about 100-200 pounds of fruit each.
Then I make and freeze the juice. I give the leftover mash to a pig farm.
I also have asparagus, grapes, garlic, berry bushes, and loads of strawberries.

For my annual plantings I will have cukes, tomatoes, onions, okra, beans, beets, lettuce and mullein tea.

I also grow daylilies and use the flowers and buds in my salads. They add a lot of color and flavor.

But I don't know if I will be able to keep my produce this spring and fall.
I am monitoring the radiation levels on radiationnetwork.com to see if they increase to dangerous levels and contaminate the garden plants.

But I don't think there will be a problem, as I am thousands of miles from the disaster zone.
I sure hope I don't lose it all.

I grow so much that I end up giving a lot of it away. But for free they must pick it themselves. Most people refuse to pick it, so they don't get any. (too much work, they say).
And it amazes me how many people do not want to eat fresh veggies and fruit. A lot of my friends just don't want any. And yes, these friends are all overweight.
Of course they all ask me for free jams and jellies, pies, pastries and jarred fruit, which I don't make at all. I tell these people to bring their jars over and I will show them how peel fruit and freeze or can it. Of course they all say they don't have the time. LOL

I had one standing and looking at over $1,000 worth of fruit hanging from my trees last fall...and she said "Why don't you just buy your juice from the store. It would be so much easier and save you so much time and work!"

I told her all that commercial juice is watered down, with artificial color and flavoring added.. There is a huge difference between my juice concentrates and what is being sold in the stores. She still thinks I am nutz...LOL.

Gardening takes a lot of work and exercize. Making juice and drying tea is labor intensive. Very few of my friends and relatives want to do all that work. They prefer playing cards and watching TV....so you guessed it...they are overweight and don't have the energy I do.

What I have noticed is this...The people that do come and pick my fruit, then can or freeze it, are all thin or just a wee overweight. They are not afraid of a little work, and they are most interested in eating fresh wholesome foods without all the chemicals.
And all volunteer to help me clean the yard and prune my trees. They are that grateful. And I am the only overweight one of that bunch...but I am working on that...and it is such a slooow process.

OH! Your making me think I need to get my butt in gear to start my vegetables. I started my flowers in pots inside a month ago but did not even think about getting the vegetables going.
We usually have lettuce, peas, every kind of pepper imaginable,tomatoes, cucumbers, and pumpkins. For fruit it's strawberries and peaches but none this year becuase it's there off year

I am adding to my garden this year...maybe a raspberry bush needs to make it in.

Wow, your gardens sound awesome!

One thing I really like about gardening is that, for the price of a squash, or pound of brussels sprouts or sugar snap peas, I can get a packet of 50 seeds and grow as many plants as I want! Then, for many things, you just save seeds from the crop and you can keep the cycle going for as long as you want.

For example, last year I bought some Russian Banana fingerling potato slips for $12. If I wanted to buy them in my grocery store, that works out to about 3.5 lbs of potatoes (they are "fancy" so, they're expensive!). However, the yield from my garden was over 40 lbs! Granted, it takes time and effort to weed, water and harvest, but you also get to eat fresh veggies that you pick that day-- and you end up with more than you could ever eat!

Out of those 40 lbs, I saved a handful of the best spuds to start this year's crop-- total cost $0!

Plus, when you don't get to eat (or preserve/give away) everything you harvest, all you have to do is compost the remains! It takes all the guilt out of tossing old veggies (maybe that's just me?)

I am a newbie. Last year I just did herbs and tomatoes and used both ALOT.

This year I want to expand. I started some seeds inside 2 weeks ago and I already have seedling sprouts! So exciting! Oh and half my seeds were those cheap 10 cents seeds that people say only like 1 in 10 actually sprout but all of my 10 cent ones have sprouted so far and none of the more expensive ones have sprouted.

RAEBEAR-I am jealous your garden sounds awesome!

ElizabethG... thank you. I feel very fortunate to live where I live and to have the space and time to keep up with my garden. I've been doing it for years, still so much to learn... and that's part of what fascinates me about it!!

I don't understand why more people don't try their hand at gardening. Once you've tasted homegrown produce, it's impossible to go back to store-bought. At least it was for me. Even when I lived in a more urban setting, I always kept at least a salad garden going. Like nationalparker, I'm addicted to heirloom tomatoes -- and also homegrown lettuces, spinach and all the rest. Homegrown just has so much more flavor!! And there is nothing so gratifying as wandering out to your little patch and picking everything you need for your dinner veggies.

I once was walking through the produce aisle at a grocery store and realized that I grew every single thing I would have purchased there except citrus, avocados and bananas. That made me feel pretty good.

I agree with Erineyes and Jolina, too -- saves a lot of money and helps keep us in shape. My garden is quite large, but I've learned the tricks of heavy mulching and drip irrigation. That helps a lot. I'm fortunate to be able to keep chickens, too, who do their part for pest control (also give lots of lovely fresh eggs). Still, there is much physical work to be done, weeding, planting, harvesting, pruning and general garden clean-up -- and don't even get me started on all the preserving, dehydrating and canning! I compost everything I can, so that requires physical effort as well to turn the compost, move it to the garden, spread it and dig it in. But I can't imagine living any other way!

Happy gardens to everyone!

I'm skipping that this year.

THIS I need to do lol. I would love to have a garden and I've thought about it but I'm procrastinating.
It would help with being active and when you eat the fresh fruit and vegetables! So really there's two benefits

I have my own garden and I love it!!
Every day I can prepare salads from fresh vegetables!))
My favourire recipe - tomato ricotta salad
Try))

I am a wannabe gardener with a black thumb. My poor kids love the idea of growing our own food, but I failed miserably last year (tried, but planted too late and only one seedling grew; that one was eaten by a bug). This post is giving me a lot of inspiration for THIS year though. It's almost time to try again!