Have you planted a garden to combat high food prices?

I did. I'm quite proud of it so far. I planted 3 tomato plants, a zucchini, lettuce, onions, yellow & green beans, and potatoes in trash bags. Everything is growing great so far, and I've harvested a few tomatoes, lettuce & onions so far. It's so wonderful to be able eto go pick a tomato and some lettuce & onion instead of having to pay $3+ a lb for tomatoes, $2.50 for lettuce, and who knows what for onions!

I can't wait to see how my potato experiment works out. The plants are growing fine so far, but have a few months to go before we can harvest.

This year I'm planting more of the things I can freeze and less of the perishables.

I was raised as a child always having a garden and do to this day. I am planting more this year.

long growing season..

and it tastes better too. Grow some corn too when the time is right

36 tomato plants, 50 peppers of different varieties (sweet and hot), potatoes, radishes, spinach, red onions, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, peas, fava beans. pole beans, soybeans, corn, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, okra, and assorted herbs. The lettuce did poorly, the okra and cucumbers never came up at all, but I've already harvested the spinach and radishes, and they were great!

garden THAT BIG! I tried to plant what I believed I could take care of, and replace the foods I buy at the store. The most popular vegie in our house is the green or yellow bean, and I planted enough of those that I should be able to freeze the excess and have them all winter.

plus I have access to an heirloom plant greenhouse and get plants cheap at the end of their season. But it is economical as well as healthy. Glad you are gardening, and the best of luck to you.

That is so cool! It sounds similar to my bin method which resembles a composter. Except with your's I guess you just rip the buggers open, sort through them and they're harvested? How do you keep them from being too moist? If you don't mind if I pick your brain for the specifics?

Use the Glad ForceFlex trash bags because they can handle the weight & pressure of the contents as you fill them up as the plants grow.

Cut several slits in the bottom of the bags for drainage.

Put about 4" potting soil in each bag, and plant your potatoes.

When the plant foliage is 4" high, cover with straw, mulch, or compost to cover within 1" of the top of the green.

When the bag is full, let the plants continue to grow. When they flower, you should be able to harvest some baby new potatoes, and leave the rest to mature.

Useing straw or mulch lets you just reach down into the bag and feel for the potatoes, and yse you're right, when the plant green has died back and dried, all you have to do is split the bag open and there's your crop!

I have a pallet bin system set up and I plant the seed potatoes in compost in the bottom and then toss on shredded leaves as they grow. When they reach the top I let them flower and die. Then I open the door (remove the front pallet) and dig around with my hands to remove potatoes as needed. :)

It sounds as if your method should work great. The cuts in the bottom is the part I didn't mentally "see" and was the only missing link to the formula. What a neat and creative way to grow potatoes!

My neighbor said she and her husband used to use old tires they stacked up and filled with mulch as the potatoes grew. To harvest they simply removed the tires. Being w/o old tires I improvised with my pallet bin. :P

I don't have any old tires laying around, and I priced trash cans & 55 gal. drums, and found out I couldn't afford to buy them! It would have been a lot cheaper to just buy my potatoes! Then I read about using these trash bags, and decided, even though they are the expensive kind ($7 for a box of 14) they were a LOY cheaper than the other options and can be placed anywhere. I don't have quite enough room to grow potatoes in hills like a regular garden, but this plan seemed to work well. I'll let you know what I end up with in a few months!

this year we have 15 tomato plants, a variety. Same number of squash. Plus radishs, okra, cucumbers, beans and cantalopes. All in a plot that measures 16 ft by 24 ft. Our son and DIL have their own garden for the first time this year

for cramming lots in a small space. Also, any books that discuss French biointensive gardening. Jon Jeavons' How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Thought Possible (on less land than you can imagine) is also excellent.

Potatoes, squash, pie pumpkins, cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, onions, parsnips, yellow eyed beans, lima beans, garlic, tomatoes, peppers and muskmelons..

for advice and inspiration! :D

So far we've grown some nice lettuce that the deer enjoyed very much.

The lettuce, carrots, radishes and onions I planted didn't do any good. Something has eaten two of the four tomato plants I put out. I do have three potato plants growing and will be interested to see if any of the three produces potatoes.

I wish... we are growing some herbs in front of the house, but I think if we tried to grow tomatoes passers-by would snatch them.

My tomato plant is really spindly, my eggplant isn't growing, and the cucumber seedlings have never bothered to develop any true leaves and are 6" tall.

:cry:

Looks like I might have to limit myself to lettuce and spinach.....

It sounds suspicious.

OK, I told a fib up in my post header there- I don't really wonder
how those glorified Mall-Security asswipes at the DoHS 'feel' about JACK SHIT.

Y'know what I -DO- wonder? Seriously?
I wonder what the local RABBITS think when the early summer breezes
waft the seductive scent of fresh zucchini blossoms to their little
pink noses, and they come a-hopping to EAT THEM ALL like they did
back when I planted my zucchini plants at ground level.

That's the kinda stuff I wonder about. Your mileage may vary.

Richard

300 Tomato Plants
100+ Peppers
100+ Eggplant
Beans
Melons
Cucumbers
onions
Garlic
Salad Greens

And other good stuff

Each year varies as to what excels and how big our garden is.

This year we expanded quite a bit more than we have had in several years. We are growing cucumbers, carrots, onions, beets, lettuce, radishes, yellow squash, zucchini, canteloupe, okra, green beans, bell peppers, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and tomatoes.

I love having a garden and eating fresh produce. There is nothing like a tomato fresh from the plant.

Enjoy your gardens everyone!

I planted a bunch of greens, too much for us, to feed the chickens. We get many many slugs in some types of greens, making it distasteful (for me) to eat them, but the chickens love them. So I planted an extra amount of slug/chicken food too to turn into eggs.

That potato in a bag idea sounds good. Please come by the gardening group, if you haven't, and put a post there, and let us know how it works.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=246

They are all still growing, but no fruit for my labour yet. I have a really small space in the front of my apartment that my landlord lets me garden (I also plant flower for him, so he doesn't mind). It gets pretty good sun and it is easy to water.

The only problem is that it's very open to the street...there are no fences around my apartment and it is only 3 or 4 metres away from the street. I'm guessing as soon as anything grows, its going to be gone.

Especially since I live in an area heavily populated my starving students. :(