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Ruby Brown
- Female
- Manchester, TN 37355
- United States
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Gardening in Australia
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Garden Lovers Book Rev...
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Container Vegetable Ga...
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Urban Farmers
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Profile Information
- Where do you live and garden?
- Manchester, TN USA
- How long have you been growing food?
- forever!
- Dream garden travel destination:
- English Gardens in England, and Dutch Gardens in Holland.
- Favorite foods:
- Any fresh vegetable, fresh fruit, and good home cooking.
Comment Wall (48 comments)
- At 3:22am on June 1, 2009,
Gillian said…
- Hi Ruby,
Gemsquash is a South African squash that I continually try to grow in the wrong area, and the wrong climate! but you know what it is about trying to bring back some part of your childhood :)
I am only just learning to identify these pawpaws myself and there are some trees that are bisexual (not sure if that is the right term!) but they have both male and female flowers. I will see if I get get some photos of those trees to post.
Mmmm I do love what herbs and natural foods can do. I always sip liquorice tea for a sore throat, and ginger for motion sickness, rosemary for headaches. You seem very knowledgable in these things - do you think you could post a list of common herbs and some of their uses?
- At 4:49pm on March 30, 2009,
Gillian said…
- Hi Ruby,
Your place sounds lovely too - I love the idea of little special areas to stop and admire your work. I think sitting in my swing and surverying my small garden is just as important as all the hard work digging and planting. It is the perfect size for me, although I find I have to contain myself from planting every plant I ever wanted.
take care,
Gillian
- At 11:16pm on January 15, 2009,
Bea Kunz said…
- Sounds lovely Ruby...what part of Alabama are you from?
I'm an Alabama girl also.
Bea Kunz
- At 12:59am on January 15, 2009,
Katherine Turcotte said… - Ruby your place sounds wonderful - You must post some pictures. I love daffodils and love the way masses of them look when planted. Daffodils and grape hyacinths are my favorite Spring flowers! Thanks for joining my book review group. I hope you can add some great titles.
Kathy of the Enchanted Wood
http://www.enchantedwoodmusings.blogspot.com
- At 11:34am on January 7, 2009,
Cynthia said… - We have a friend that has horses so the first 2 years of our garden we got aged manure from his farm and really worked it into the soil. We have the soil tested once every two years. My husband talked to a friend at the extension service and said the local coop has been known to sell old seed, so that is a good possibility as to what happened. We over sow seed too, we can always thin the seedlings. My husband loves pole beans over bush beans. I like a bean with more flesh than bean - so we grow both. We panted corn and beans together at the same time last year, it did not work, I was told I should have waited till the corn was just over a ft high then plant the pole beans. I don’t remember my grandmother/ mother waiting like that. Oh well! We decided to skip that this year and opt for the bean tower. The local flea market has TONS of old bike wheels so that wont be a problem, said we can plant 24 to 30 plants per tower on another site. Thanks for the tips on the white half runners. Will have to give them a try.
- At 9:54am on January 7, 2009,
Cynthia said…
- No we don't have an overlook - wish we did. Growing up in Western NC I am use to having one.
The thing the sweet potato growing had in common was sand. You mentioned about putting sand in the cold frame to start the sweet potatoes, the hill where my grandmother threw the seed sweet potatoes is very sandy. Drainage was good too.
The coop here is where we got all our seed and seedlings from last year. I would say one out of every six to ten seed came up and the plants were just puny. We have never had that problem before. Have added a lot of stuff to the garden over the years with compost, pig/chicken manure, bone meal - stuff like that. Took a while to get the soil where it needs to be.
We like the heirloom tomatoes too, and white half runners. My husband is making bean towers for me this year out of old bicycle wheels. Found this in Mother Earth news archives: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1983-05-01/Hang-Vines-On-Bike-Spokes.aspx
Do you plant pole beans with corn? Grew up with that, but here the wind is so strong on the plateau corn is not so easy to keep standing up!
- At 4:26am on January 7, 2009,
Kathryn said… - Hi Ruby what is the thing you have planted the most of over the years to keep your family going? The main crop to keep your family fed. Mine would be brocolli, eggplants and fresh beans. İ ask as you have many many years of experience and you could give tips to those who are looking at growing the bulk of thier families needs.
- At 12:31am on January 7, 2009,
Linda said… - p.s. Ruby, the lids are part of the bottling ( canning) system I use called Vacola. The lid sits on the jar in contact with a rubber ring and the clips are pressed down to keep the lids in place. I then process in boiling water and a seal forms. When the jars are cool, I remove the clips and the jars are very well sealed. I suspect Vacola is an Australian company.
- At 12:27am on January 7, 2009,
Linda said…
- Hi Ruby,
Thank you for your kind comments about my photographs. We are also retired, my husband was an Electrical Engineer too. We will have our 50th anniversary on 27th November 2009. We have had gardens wherever we've lived, England, Africa and here in Australia. The climate range in Australia is from Tropics to Cool Mountain so we've had some challenges. Here in Tasmania we have a cool climate so can grow all the types of vegetables that are familiar to us from our childhoods in England. We farmed for a few years, 50 acres, but very step land and grew a smallish plantation ( 35,000 plants) of strawberries, had a good orchard and ran sheep and cattle. To pay for the farm and educated our kids we were lucky to have neighbouring farmers that enjoyed bartering and exchange, so we'd swap strawberries for milk, eggs for piano lessons, vegetables for hay cutting. Tasmanians generally have old fashioned values which is why we love to live here. We now have a small garden, 1/4 acre but in a lovely part of the coast in a little hamlet of only 30 houses. It's windy and salty so presents its' challenges, but we manage to provide ourselves, our neighbours and daughters families with plenty fresh produce. We are thinking of scaling it down a bit though, the knees are starting to creak.
- At 11:32pm on January 5, 2009,
Cynthia said…
- We have 10 acres all 10 are just full of rocks! The potatoes were so clean when we grew them in the straw, and the yield was higher for less area. We just put down a foot of straw, put the potato 'seed' on that, added another foot of straw and wet it down. As soon as the plant leaves came up through the straw we added more straw (it breaks down rather quickly.) Got it about 3 feet tall then stopped adding straw. Worked very well for us. We had the exact same experience with sweet potatoes, first year they grew very well, since then - yuck. We are going to give them a try in straw this year. I remember growing up my grandmother tried and tried growing sweet potatoes, never could get a good crop. My grandfather brought home the seed, she was not in a good mood that day so she took the sweet potato seed and just threw them out on the bank beside the garden. Best crop of sweet potatoes you ever saw. So from that day forward she just pitched the sweet potato seed out on the same bank and left them. She always had a good crop that way. I like growing container plant vegetables in the ground because of the high yield, compact plant. With us, grandkids, extended family, friends and all we grow for a lot of people and I don't want to have a lot to tend. Plus my grandchildren will go to the garden and eat the raw veggies right then and there as snacks - we have to plant a lot to be able to have enough to 'put up' for winter. I trade a lot of my veggies; will trade for barbecue! Are you ready to order seed yet? My grandmother told me to always order from Burpee Seed Co. and/or Gurneys. I have most of my life till last year. My husband wanted to buy local so we did. I'm back to ordering this year, wont take a chance like that again! Pour yield, the plants just looked...puny... is the only word I can think of. Happy New Year to you too!
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