Any back yard/urban gardeners?

[LDO]

I saw a pretty cool idea recently called a keyhole garden. It's a 6' dia raised-bed garden, with a central "basket" for compost to feed it. It has an inset area to provide access to the basket. The idea was developed as a way to grow food in areas with poor soil/hot climates. Anyway- here's mine. It's made of bricks without mortar. I got the bricks from a neighbor who had them as a patio. He got a pool, so the bricks had to go. I wanted to pour a concrete ring as a base and use mortar, but I was working so much that I just didn't have time. I decided to just build it before I missed out on growing season. You can see that I drove in some rebar to give some stability. (Some are below the top level. I used a rotary hammer to drive them. Some went farther than others in the rocky soil where I live) I need to trim them, but I have to replace the spanner for my angle grinder first. Oh yeah- the dirt is held in by a couple of layers of cardboard and some landscape cloth.

Everything is growing well. It looks like we'll have more Pablano, Marconi, and Bell peppers than we know what to do with. We also have corn, carrots, onions, leeks...and I don't even remember what else. The compost basket isn't doing much good right now, so I water it every other day and rely on a soil mix that is 60% compost, so I think it will be ok for a while.

I can't wait to make Chile Rellenos out of my own garden.

[Harry P.]

I never got into it, but my parents were big on a backyard garden. My dad always had a "mini farm" going in the back yard every year. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, carrots, onions, cabbage, you name it, he grew it.

[LDO]

Oh yeah- the giant planters against the fence have raspberries and blackberries. The planters are 55 gallon food grade plastic drums cut in half, as well as water softener brine tanks cut in half. I want to grow a lot more blackberries; enough to make wine/mead with. I want to make a batch of blackberry mead big enough to age in a bourbon barrel

[Tom Geiger]

I have 10 yards of mulch if that qualifies me as a gardener! I've mulched all the beds around the house but planting anything here is just feeding the deer!

[Kaleb]

We have buckets, since we live in an apartment. I do not believe the landlord would very happy if I put in a garden.

[Lunajammer]

My GF and I both enjoy flower gardens and now after a discussion about dioramas, she's really getting into a fairy garden. I thought that was fine for her, I wasn't that interested until she got all stoked about G-scale things and now I can't help but get drawn into it. Gardening AND modeling. But she'd hang me if I put a "rust & crud" car in it.

[zenrat]

We grew our own tomatoes, pumpkins, squash and strawberries this year. The rest of the yard is mostly native plants, shrubs and trees. Lots of trees. Can't get enough trees.

We've got the last of the original big gums that were here before the land was cleared and i'm planting more where I can. When the neighbours complain about a 60 foot tree going in I point out that we'll both be dead before it gets to half that height.

[Tom Geiger]

Last evening when I was weeding my garden areas to mulch them, I noticed how the wild strawberries had spread. The fruit is colorful but never gets big enough to harvest and eat. Still, they're cool so I will keep 'em and mulch around them!

[Nxr]

As much as i love my plants in the house and how much the flower even through winter time, the bugs totally ruin it for me! I had spider mites, aphids, gnats you name it! Even a mantis once which totally gave me the creeps.

[BubbaJoe]

first time in 6 years i haven't had a garden...just no time this year to take care of it...i usually have 10 or 12 raised beds ,grow the usual garden veggies and herbs. i make my own sauce ,last year i put up almost 6 gallons.