h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For each of the last four years I have downscaled my vegetable patch. As much as I have always enjoyed growing my own fruits and vegetables, I am forced to admit that my gardening creates a lot more work and stress than it is worth. The bermuda grass and bindweed have won. I'm tired of fighting them, especially the bermuda.

So here's the plan. I need a new potting shed. My handyman is willing to build me one to my specifications which should work better than buying one ready made and then trying to modify it. Instead of pouring a slab the dimensions of the new shed, I will spring for one large enough to also hold a container garden. I will set the grow boxes and some permanent trellises directly on the concrete where the stupid weeds can't get to them. Take that, demonic grass!

Little DooDah has a wonderful farmer's market. It wins awards all the time. It is much easier (and cheaper) to buy fresh fruit and veg there than to grow my own. So step two is going to be to only grow favorite varieties that I can't get from our local growers. Things like certain heirloom tomatoes, wax beans, white patty pan squash, etc. varieties the larger growers don't mess with. I am absolutely finished with planting things readily available there.

Okay, I do realize that the price of a large concrete slab is going to make for some very pricey vegetables, but I can't go cold turkey and give it up completely. I get the shakes just thinking about it.

Take care dear!

Good luck with that. I have some vegetable plants on my balcony, and I'm grateful that weeds or slugs can't get there. Here's hoping the aphids will stay away.

'We've' (well, OK William really, I just get to enjoy the end-results), haven't grown so much this year, as a lot just isn't worth it... Here, in teh UK at least, last couple years, tomatos grown at home, didn't relaly do well (heat/wet at wrong times), and, when they do well; is the time all the decent farmer-market stalls have them, really cheap anyhow simularly, whenever he's done courgettes before, massive, massive crops; 99% get given away anyhow, and the few we do want to eat ourselves, well, agian, they're so cheap to buy...
the home grown potatos are easy enough to do; and always taste that bit better than bought, (and I did get to help plant them out this year!), so we did them this year, and he's done loads and loads of herbs, as useual (half indoors, half in greenhouse), plus some 'weird tomatos', and some strange chilli peppers, plus lemon cucumbers He also planted a load of lettuce, that didn't get going at the right time, and may just all fail I'm lucky where i live; two minutes walk from my front room, I have, in effect, fresh fruit and veg, bought, and brought over, every day, from one of the big London fruit/veg markets, by the shop owner, so they're always very good, and a few other places round here, have massive turnovers, so its always so fresh and good; several of whom I know happen to sell fruit/veg to some really rahter posh and expensive resturants in the area (though actually the fruit/veg ain't overly expensive from the shops/stalls)... unless you've lots of time, really suitable land/equipment, Its not worth doing more than gives you pleasure to do; I think, anyhow....

If you really have a jones for your own salads, have you considered a hydroponic setup, Hyp?

As much as I like living in an apartment complex, I do often think it would be nice to have a garden with a vegetable patch. Mostly I think that when I'm paying for fruit and veg at the supermarket or the farmers market, and especially when I'm paying through the nose for organic fruit and veg, and particularly when I see rhubarb for $3+ a pound and prices they're asking for soft fruit like raspberries. Rhubarb grows like a bloody weed!

Some of you may know that I'd planned to grow a few tomato plants on my balcony, now that I've got one that faces south, but there's a certain bloody squirrel...

One more incursion and he's going to be dinner every bit as much as the toms, ginger and herbs I want to have out there.

They're gamey.

Lil, I have considered a hydroponic experiment. That is probably for next spring. By then I should have time to study it properly so I don't make a lot of mistakes. I have good luck with salad greens. Trouble is, I always have more than I can use up, so I wind up giving more away than I keep.

I can't imagine not growing vegetables. I simply have to find a way to do it that I can manage and still get good results. I can't fight the bermuda grass and bindweed any longer. I don't have the back for it. And I refuse to drown them in herbicides. Anything strong enough to kill bermuda grass, if such a thing even exists, is going to be dangerous to my pets, to me, to the birds, and to the soil. I don't use strong insecticides, either.

I remember seeing something about "box gardens" where the veggies are grown in elevated boxes so no bending over. That sounds like a good option for you.