How large is your garden mate? Or alternatively how bad are you at giving produce away? My grandparents have quite a large garden and have never had issues with too much stuff
I had a half acre, and something like tomatoes means you have to can them because you can’t eat them all once they are ready, and a pear tree that would produce wheel barrows full for weeks so I had to start brewing Perry.
But in the city with only a 10x10 plot it was pretty slow going except for cherry tomatoes…those grew like wildfire up and over the fence etc. So many we had to give them away.
It’s really quite a blessing to have people with such a wealth of knowledge about gardening in the family. It takes a lot of seasons to learn how to be so good at it.
My dad has all sorts of fruit trees and vegetables, I’m over here now trying to keep a rosemary alive, its supposed to me super resilient but it keeps drying up so I water it but maybe the clay dirt is too much for it.
Poor thing has been planted and removed like 5 times due to different house projects. Its like as soon as I plant it all of a sudden they want to use that space
Definitely! For example, a zucchini plant might give you a fruit per day for about 3 weeks, which is more than my family can eat. The options for us then are a) canning such as zucchini relish (highly recommend!) or b) grate it and freeze it for future baking (zucchini bread, egg bites, etc.)
I had 1 tomato plant that made 4 huge tomatoes per day. I had to prop it up from sagging, it was a monster. It was great though, I made so many tomato based meals, that one plant basically fed my whole family for months. All I did was, good soil, in a pot, watering it every day, in a sunny but not burn-y location. I think that’s all plants though, and I know my advice is equivalent to “draw the rest of the owl”, but gardening really is just doing the basics very well
How large is your garden mate? Or alternatively how bad are you at giving produce away? My grandparents have quite a large garden and have never had issues with too much stuff
Depends on what you grow.
I had a half acre, and something like tomatoes means you have to can them because you can’t eat them all once they are ready, and a pear tree that would produce wheel barrows full for weeks so I had to start brewing Perry.
But in the city with only a 10x10 plot it was pretty slow going except for cherry tomatoes…those grew like wildfire up and over the fence etc. So many we had to give them away.
I wonder, do they can stuff as well? Thats the only way to fully utilize a large gardens produce I think. And yes, I did eat all those tomatoes.
They sure do. Freeze a lot of it as well. Leeks, raspberries, drying spices, making cherry/apricot kompot, making marmelade…
The only thing they complained about this year has been too many cherries. I’d know I had to pick like ⅓ of them.
we have a loquat tree(30+years from parents old house) from a layering, it produces alot of fruits, the bees go nuts for the flowers
It’s really quite a blessing to have people with such a wealth of knowledge about gardening in the family. It takes a lot of seasons to learn how to be so good at it.
My dad has all sorts of fruit trees and vegetables, I’m over here now trying to keep a rosemary alive, its supposed to me super resilient but it keeps drying up so I water it but maybe the clay dirt is too much for it.
Poor thing has been planted and removed like 5 times due to different house projects. Its like as soon as I plant it all of a sudden they want to use that space
I’ve seen rosemary grow in the desert without needing much other than an automated lawn (drip) sprinkler, on a timer like 3(?) times a week?
wild ones are likely evolved to grow in that environment over cultivated domestic variety, probably more robust.
Definitely! For example, a zucchini plant might give you a fruit per day for about 3 weeks, which is more than my family can eat. The options for us then are a) canning such as zucchini relish (highly recommend!) or b) grate it and freeze it for future baking (zucchini bread, egg bites, etc.)
One tomato plant can be too many for a family of 4. You don’t need a large garden to have too many tomatoes (or zucchini)
What kind of monster tomato plants are you growing? We are a family of 5 and we have 10+tomato plants which often don’t feel enough.
I had 1 tomato plant that made 4 huge tomatoes per day. I had to prop it up from sagging, it was a monster. It was great though, I made so many tomato based meals, that one plant basically fed my whole family for months. All I did was, good soil, in a pot, watering it every day, in a sunny but not burn-y location. I think that’s all plants though, and I know my advice is equivalent to “draw the rest of the owl”, but gardening really is just doing the basics very well
And we all know families survive off of just tomatoes.
Amazing how many of you believe growing enough for for 5kcals a day is some hobbiest task.