Originally Posted by
AZ Libertarian
Thanks for asking, and starting this thread, dave!
Prior to last year, my only experience in gardening (other than houseplants) was putting a radish seed in a cup in kindergarden, and transferring the seedling into the ground.
After attending the 2010 Freedom Summit in Phoenix (where I live), my friend Kelly and I gave one of the speakers a ride to the residence he was staying at for the event. It was Presidential Candidate and current President of the Continental Congress Michael Badnarik - a good friend of mine. During the conversation, Kelly asked Mike "What should we be doing right now?" to which he replied "You should be securing the survival of your Family."
I took that advice to heart - personally.
I put in a 4' x 4' raised bed winter garden with red & green looseleaf lettuce (Mesclun Mix), Buttercrunch lettuce, arugula, carrots, green onions, and some kind of bean that was supposed to be planted in the Spring (LOL). We ended up with so much produce, my family of six couldn't eat it all to where I was consistently giving it away to friends and neighbors (did I just incriminate my self? Marbury vs. Madison...)
I upped the ante for this summer, and put in four apple trees (two types of two each), three plum, one fig and one pomegranite tree, and six grapevines (two Thompson Seedless and two Flame Seedless). I counted 75 tomato plants the other day (Beefsteak, Roma, and Cherry) and three-quarters have fruit on them. Add to that cucumbers, eggplant, sweet banana peppers, red and green bell, habanero, cowhorn peppers, okra, pumpkin, cantalope, honeydew, watermelon, white and brown onions, garlic, and a dozen herbs (NO hemp - I'm a firearm enthusiast and I don't need unwanted intrusions from Law Enforcement, so I keep a clean garden!)
I have grown EVERYTHING from seed except for the trees and grapevines, and one Early Girl tomato plant I bought at Home Depot when I planted - which got up to 28 tomatos at one time, and I harvested about 3 to 5 a day while everything else was growing.
...and I did it mostly in my back yard in a major metropolitan city - with five of the trees in the front yard. What suprised me most was the amount of seed I got from letting a small portion of the winter veggies go to seed. I probably ended up with $80 worth of Arugula seeds, and about $50 in lettuce seeds - and that's not counting the onions that are seeding now.
I'm hooked! I never really liked tomatos until I tasted them directly off of the vine. The cucumbers were great, and I think I'm going to try and can some sauce I'll make with the romas.
Oh yeah - ask my 3 year old Grandson about "Grampas' Garden". That boy is a hawk at spotting ripe strawberries, of which I have a few plants of. Did I mention the berries? Red and Black Raspberries, and Blackberries. Too bad the Blueberries didn't live. That, and an Apricot tree I couldn't get to take were about my only real failures. But then again I still have the hottest part of the summer ahead of me, and 110 is not uncommon here.
What I couldn't do with a few acres....
Ed
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