We have a growing local foods movement in the Bay Area, and there are three farmers markets each weekend in our town - all within a few miles of me. It is so strong a movement that the local Safeway, in some cases, identifies the farm in California where some of their produce comes from.
Being close the the source of lots of good produce is great. We moved here from New Jersey, which is not a bad vegetable state either, but just after we landed and before we could move into our temporary hotel, my kids and I visited a supermarket. Our eyes just about fell out when we saw the produce section. Many of the vegetables we had never even seen before.
I have been planting a backyard garden for 25 years. Generally I go 20 feet square. I can get anything to grow but the last couple years my cucumbers have been too few. My neighbors have had trouble with them too. I end up taking bags of tomatoes to the neighbors houses every year. My wife always buys too damn many tomato plants. This year she wanted 3 varieties of peppers, including Jalapenos. I doubt they will do well in Michigan. But I am up for anything.
I picked up a fig, raspberry and two blackberries for $5 each at Lowes. They were a little distressed but not bad. Then I got a few stevias at 87 cents each. I love tge distressed plants, they’re cheaper and if they die on me I don’t feel as bad. If they thrive then I feel like I accomplished something.
I picked off several more lubber grasshoppers on my bird of paradise. The poor thing looks terrible. Then I found a cute caterpillar on it but I didn’t kill him, I did some research and found him to be a spicebush swallowtail butterfly. I don’t have a spicebush but it turns out they like camphor trees too, so I moved him to the nearby camphor tree.
I also bought one of those misting fans and used it while I worked on the porch, it felt great. It also helped water my plants.
Is it too late to join in? Last year we had our first garden in our new home, the first in 12 years, and it was glorious. This year we have both been pretty crippled up, coupled with rain every freaking weekend in May. Today was the only forecasted sunny day for the week, and in spite of my severely swollen left foot, I soldiered through the day to put my 12 tomato plants (2 sweet 100s, 1 sweet millions, 1 german striped, 1 early girl, 1 black Russian, 2 romas & 4 beefsteaks), 4 corn, 2 zucchini & 4 peas into the the thick heavy mud. I cannot believe how late these things are going in the garden, and it’s nowhere near what I’d put in if my health wasn’t compromised, but at least it’s in the dirt. I hope I get something out of it, even if it’s not until October.
Oh, by the way, I’m posting from the Seattle area, coming off the wettest May ever. Oddly enough, last year was the exact opposite - we had to water every day! I’m still considering dropping some 8 ball zucchini seeds in just to see if they take, and if there are any lemon cucumber plants at the Home Depot again this year, I’ll add them to the lineup. Man, I love those little nuggets!
Edit to add: last year we had a tomato jungle - too many, too close. This year I put 12 where I had 16, hoping some editing and more informed plant care will yield more tomatoes and less chaos!
I’m waiting for all the perennials to go on sale for 75% off before putting any more in this year. I feel the same way - if they survive, yay, if not, no big risk. They usually do just fine, though - once those poor, rootbound plants get in the ground, they go nuts.
That’s a lot of tomatoes, singular! I still haven’t got mine; I was just going to get one or two of the same kind, but I like your idea of getting a bunch of different varieties.
Thanks for the Joe-Pye Weed, old_joe. It’s in the ground and watered already, and looking pretty happy. 
I run through the sprinkler and hose my feet down. The cool water feels good.
What is a spice bush?
Do you can them at the end of the year or make sauce and freeze it? I used to do that when I had a lot of tomatoes planted. I would also plant some green bean seeds every two weeks near the metal tomato holders and they would grow up the cages. If you like green beans it is a good way to have them all summer and the tomatoe cages hold them up.
cats destroyed our squash…
i really want to make a couple of herb gardens. i have 3 pots, about 6"wide, 2’ long & 8’ tall… lots of outdoor and sun of all kinds. the cilantro and chives she planted, suck, cilantro is tall and spindly and has been seeding. i didnt plant any of that because i’m anal about doing things and i just don’t touch other peoples stuff.
anyway… soil? what goes good together? i’m thinking parsleys, onions, garlic… basil, rosemary, thyme. sage? this is central arkansas. Dill?
Well, it’s a bush of the Lindera species (laurel family) and apparently spicebush swallowtail like them alot. They’re pretty butterflys Spicebush Swallowtail - Papilio troilus so I might have to see if it’s possible to grow some and encourage the caterpillars to hang out there instead of on my bird of paradise (still not sure if he was eating it or just fell out of the tree).
Hey something was chewing on my avocado seedling leaves and it left some black gunk under the leaves which wiped off easily and it didn’t seem to be a creature. I suspected the lubber grasshoppers, maybe the black stuff was grasshopper poo, but I don’t think they eat and run, I think they hang out until they’ve decimated the plant. My only other suspect is the squirrel that keeps burying peanuts on my porch. I hear they like avocado leaves but that doesn’t explain the black stuff under the leaves.
Nola Cajun- how did the cats destroy your squash? (Mind you I would be grateful to them if they destroyed chokos).
I confess - I am a home grown tomato junkie. I can just eat 'em till my lips crack. Whenever a coworker would bring in tomatoes, it took everything I had not to take them all. So Mr. Singular and I are wildly self-indulgent and guilt-free in summer now! Of course every meal has big slabs of tomatoes, we munch on Sweet 100s (never tried Sweet Millions before) while watching tv, and all the romas are sauced and frozen. Occasionally I get to return the favor and bring in a big basket to share, and I don’t have to feel guilty anymore!
We’re really curious to see the Black Russians and German Striped - those are purely for fun and bragging rights, if they turn out. Man, that sad little on-the-vine I put in today’s salad is really gonna be a letdown…
Flying things ate all my tomatoes. Actually they ate everything. I need to train the cats to chase them.
Anyone know how to get rid of Ivy?
Aaaaand right on cue, the rain has just started coming down. I can’t believe I actually got everything planted yesterday! I guess I’ll have to hope the forecast is right and next Saturday will be sunny - there’s still room for whatever I find at the various garden stores, even though it’ll mean another session of mud gardening. I should just about be ready to walk without the cane by then.
That’s a great idea! I have a couple questions, tho. You plant seeds every two weeks? Don’t you end up with a huge bush of beans blocking the tomatoes? Can it be any kind of bean? How do you get to the tomatoes, or is it not an issue? I can’t picture how this works, but I’m intrigued. Tell me more!
I think from the thread on getting rid of bindweed that you pretty much nuke it from orbit.
Someone suggested putting one end of the bindweed in a herbicide solution and letting the plant draw it up; maybe that would work for ivy, too.
ETA: Wait, that was this thread! My God, my mind’s going faster than I realized!
Unfortunately that doesn’t work. I tried taping a small bottle of plant poison to the roots. But, the mongrel stuff only absorbs it through its leaves. I can spray round up on it (if you have that in third world countries like Canada and USA ) but it is a long process.
I need some Agent Orange.
Napalm? 
I did a gardening job today - five hours of pulling weeds. Sore muscles, lots and lots of calories burned off - pluses and minuses of gardening.
Hey any day in the garden is a good day! I just got in from pulling some weeds and I ended up turning over all the soil again to find any more tubers from that weed. I’m a bit sore but with any luck I will start planting soon. I took some picks of the noxious weed for anyone else fighting weeds. This one is a bugger!
I did a weeding job at the neighbouring yard of the people whose yard I weeded yesterday; working without homeowners around is so much better. Not that I’m lazy or anything, it’s just that little bit more stressful when you know the homeowners are watching…watching… Now, to get back to digging our new pathway at our yard again.
We’ve made a sauce of tomatoes, squash and eggplant when we’ve had too many. It cooks down nicely, and you can freeze it.
One of the old ladies in my father-in-laws residence recommended slicing eggplant, blanching it, and then freezing it. It’s not that great for fresh eggplant, but excellent for eggplant parmesan, and simple.