Low Carb Garden 2006!

[not2late]

Today, I opened my mail box and found bunch of gardening catalogs. So, I'm happily spending the afternoon looking through them, planning this year's garden.

I learned valuable lessons last year and my partial garden list will be based on those lessons. So far I plan to grow:

1. Snow peas: They did well as a Fall crop. I was able to harvest a handful of snow peas before the killer frost, but I was able to enjoy their yummy pea shoots, which have as much pea flavor and the pods.

2. Arugula and Mache

3. Watercress

4. Herbs: parsley, cilantro, basil, chives

5. Cucumber

6. Bell pepper

7. Tomato

8. Green beans: This year I'll try out those Asian "yard long beans". Also I was told that the "hyacinth bean" was edible, so I'll give those a shot.

9. Corn (because I like the look it gives to my yard )

10. Spaghetti squash: I'm deciding between two cultivars. One is the regular spaghetti squash (like the kind in the supermarket). The other has a flesh that's more orange.

11. Zucchini

12 Okra: I'd like to grow the purple/red okra this year in addition to the regular green kind. I saw the purple okra at a garden display last year and thought the plant was very decorative and pretty (might go in the front yard).

[2big4mysize]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

Oh megs didn't you just drool over them. I had the red okra last yr but lost it when I wasn't there all the time to pick it. It looks great in the garden. I saw the orange spagjetti sqaush, one called hasta la pasta but didn't want to be the first to try it. Let me know how it grows and tastes Megs. I am having visions of Mother's raccoons eating it before i do.I envy you I can't get peas to mature here. I saw some new eggplant types to try this yr.


where are the cool weather crops like the greens musrtard, kale and collards, beet tops, and the spinach that will be done before the tomatoes and peppers go in the ground? what about leaf lettuce? I always plant more then I can eat and just donate it to the nursing home cause they love getting it and i don't have to worry about having too much.

I tossed some sprouting garlic under my tomatos late last summer and they are still growing me bulbs now. I went a little nuts harvesting the curls after reading that great post here about them so I'm sure my bulbs will not be very big in June and I might just leave them for more fun eating come Sept when they sprout again.

For my goalie garden I'm getting
6 differnt varities of tomotoes cause you can never have too many of them and different ones have different colors, textures and flavors
I got peppers both sweet and hot ones
Okra
eggplants both white and lavander
brocoli raab
kohlrabi a kind you can eat raw.
leeks
rhubard
Swiss Chard
yellow and green zuchinni and a new burpee eight ball kind
cukes at her house never amke it inside so I'm going for that lemon one and see if I can fool the bugs and critters.

For my root garden I've got carrots, radishes, beets cause I love the tops, parsnip
oh and a horseradish plant to see what I can do with growing my own.

The birds planted some wheat and other grains last yr and it looked great growing and I had whole grains for eating so I'me planting them again this yr on a small scale.

And corn as Megs says it looks so good and I use it to stake my bean plants and the rows are great for the winter squash too

[Heidi3]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

I am so thrilled at where my garden is in the time I have been here!!!!


Seed catalogs do make me drool ..but I have given up on seeds and just buy locally grown baby plants or trade off what I devide out to friends who devide stuff out....

This year I did not plant garlic gotta let my beds rest.
I am vowing to dig up and get rid of every damnn cardoon a planted...first of all they grow into 12 foot thistles here!!!!! and they are very invasive!!!!! it was so fun the first plant ..now they are EVERYWHERE and in just two years!!!!

I am going to buy 3 more 5 way dwarf fruit trees at least 1 more fig tree and a weeping willow ...I just figured out Ebay and all the money I make will go to buy more plants and trees for this huge yard!

also I have to trench and block my bamboo..there are three kinds all beautiful but one is the dreaded golden bamboo and it is running faster than I can ..and that whole eating the shoots thing never happened ....

this was such a nice thread to see....helps with cabin fever

my garden goals are really to tame and establish what I have and add a few more things....

Oh I will plant peas next month I put them all over my garden growing up everthing ..even my grape vines...I figure they are good for the soil, look pretty...and tasty!

[Heidi3]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

HOW FUN IS IT TO GROW STUFF? THAT IS MY SPRING COME QUICKLY HAPPY DANCE


wish you lived closer my herbs are going to need huge devisions this year! I have 8 kinds of sage now

I was thinking of breaking things down further into mini species gardens for my herbs and other plants because the contrast with in each kind of plant family.. is so beautiful...like have a sedum garden and a sage garden ect...

[2big4mysize]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

8 kinds of sage WOW do you have that new spicey basil? I'm looking for a heat resistant one and wondered it that one worked well.

My herb are pretty basic I have dill and it is like your bamboo and cardoom everywhere the wind blows the seeds i got dill. I have 2 kinds of Rosemary some container mints I think 4 kinds but it is hard to tell cause they don't stay where you put them. I have 2 tarragons flat leaf parsely, cilantro basil oragano and fennel. I have purple and blue sage just cause the plants looks nice in the garden. This yr I'm moving the garden from my hoiuse to Mother's so her flower beds will have to look lovely with some hers here and there cause the only bare ground is going to be my veggies.

[Desertthorn]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

Megs, you have to try to plant one of those Japanese pumpkins (with the green skin) They are so delicious.
Unfortunately my gardening days are going to be limited to the window. I am going to travel and just about on my way.

[Heidi3]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

have a safe, wonderful, exciting as well as peaceful journey

I will light one of those candles I have for every event for your safety and health.....you know the ones....

[not2late]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

2Big, "Hasta la Pasta" is the one I'm thinking about trying. Regarding the purple okra, do they stay purple when they are cooked or do they turn greenish? I always sow a few packets of lettuce (gotta have my "gourmet baby greens lol). I grew broccoli rabe last year, and it did very well. So did the Swiss chard. My kale and collard crops failed, but I'll give those veggies a try again.

Heidi, fruit trees don't like Megs, so I've given up with them. I'm jealous of your Bay trees though---I've tried to grow those things but they don't like me either.

Lynn, I saw those pumpkins in one of my catalogs, I'll have to see if where I can plant it in the backyard.

RE: Basil.

One of my bosses is a Herb Freak. We were all given armfuls of Cinnamon Basil, Sweet Basil, and Genovese Basil last year. Boss is planning to expand this year with Lemon Basil, Lime Basil, Thai Basil and one of the purple varieties.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

the bright color fads but it stays red Gumbo looked wild with it LOL

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

OH YAY - a gardening thread! I just can't wait for spring! I still have cabbage and broccoli growing but the broccoli hasn't produced at all and the cabbage heads are very small, We're going to pull them up this weekend and start working on the soil so it will be ready for spring!

Our biggest part of our garden will be tomatos as usual. But we just ate our last homegrown tomatos about 3 weeks ago! I still have one batch in the freezer to make some spaghetti sauce out of!

I'm sure we'll do jalepenos and mexi-bells again as well as cilantro so I can jar my homemade salsa. We may even try habeneros since I ended up buying some last year.

I won't do squash or zuccini this year because our garden is so small and they take up so much room. I'm kinda bummed about that!


If anyone has links to their favorite seed sources please post them!

[not2late]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

Burpee, Gurney's, Seeds of Change, Schumways, are the catalogs that magically appear in my mailbox.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

The only catalogs I seem to get are for those weird places that promise fruit trees that produce 15 pound apples, or 4 different kinds of fruit on one tree. Or the tomato's that can grown hanging upside down on your porch! LOL

We have a great gardening store nearby though so I'll probably just go there again, plus they are clients of our so I guess I should patronize their shop!

[not2late]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

I also hit the local garden centers too MoG. In fact, some of the "best" seeds I ever got were at a dollar store---10 packets for 1 dollar. They were good because they had a high growth percentage, meaning I tossed the seeds into the ground and the plants grews. Some of the "name brand" seeds don't do that for me all the time.

I use the catalogs to get an idea of what I want and to read background on the plants. Occasionally I do order from them because I have no local alternative.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

I do get a pepper seed catalog, but I've never ordered from them, I usually buy my pepper plants already started.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Low Carb Garden 2006!

Hey MOG have you seen those towers you could do your squash vertically and save space. they will hold tomato plants so the weight of the squash shouldn't be too much for them.

Burpee.com http://www.burpee.com/jump.jsp?itemI...Type=HOME_PAGE and you can call and ask questions about the plants and sed before and after you get them like when my cresent moon eggplant turned orange this yr and I was getting all excited about UT eggplant they told me it was a mosaic virus, edible, but bad for the rest of the garden plants so out it went