DH is getting out of the military next year and we want to eventually be as self-sufficient as possible. We're planning to move to So. Illinois.

Those of you that do gardens/crops/urban gardening, what crops do you find you use the most or save the most money from? Are they easy to care for? What do you use for natural pesticides? Any any other things you can think of... LOL

We do a *very* small amount of urban gardening right now... tomatoes, herbs and berries. Is anyone else experiencing a late crop and blooms this year? Our tomatoes are just coming up, as well as the berries.

TIA!

We aren't gardening this year because we are living with FIL until we get in our house. But usually I plant tomatos, bell peppers and herbs. They are staples in all of my gardening. If your looking into going self sufficent, look into permaculture. Are ya'll going to be living in town or are ya'll going to get some land?

Herbs are usually too expensive to buy fresh so I always have rosemary, thyme, oregano, chives (onion and garlic), 3 kinds of mint along with a few other herbs. We usually have onion and garlic in our garden also, but honestly I don't know what I'm doing wrong with either of them, they never bulb up, ROFL!!! Oh and eggplant is a pretty plant IMO, so I suggest it to if you like it.

Honestly I haven't used pesticides of anykind in my garden but I found a rocking cool website for pesticide information. http://www.extremelygreen.com/pestcontrolguide.cfm
I plan on buying a few of the reccomended products for the commom problems in our area so I'll be ready for our garden next year.

I'm afraid I don't know much about gardening in the North (in Texas here). See if there is a master gardener's program in the area you are moving to.

Swiss Chard! You just go out and cut your leafs and take them in to cook them, and then new ones appear for another day! It is like a good little friend!

We have a strawberry hill which is nice and useful. It has about 25 plants right now and we are going to add at least that many more. They should spread out and replant themselves, but it isn't happening fast enough for us.

If I can think of other good producers all around, I'll let you know.

Most of our other things are big producers in one fell swoop and you have to harvest them like crazy for a couple weeks and then you have nothing til the next year (peaches,apricots, grapes, figs,apples)

Whatever you grow....make sure to keep checking the underside of the leaves for pests regularly. Plants often look great up top and you don't want to be surprised by unedible pest problems after weeks of watching something grow!

I would say tomatoes. Tomatoes and cucumbers are a HUGE thing for us. We eat pickles alot, and use tomato sauce (and diced) in alot of meals. We also do corn, cabbage, zuccini, pumpkins, peas, and lettuce.

My advice is, check and see what you guys eat alot of.... then grow it :D

I don't think it's possible to have too many berries. I keep planting more, and we always use them all.
Jerusalem artichokes are really prolific. It's best to plant them in an out-of-the-way corner, because they spread, but they require virtually no care and we get huge yields from them.
We eat a lot of lamb's quarters, which is a common weed. I don't have to do anything but pick and eat them, and unlike most leafy vegetables, they still taste good when they're blooming and going to seed.

Berries are so expensive here so we grow our own as much as possible. I have about 40 rasberry canes right now, and they will double in the next year. I have 50 strawberry plants, and I am not sure if they will servive this strange year, but if they do, they too will double. We have one large blueberry bush that we love... but we also have a farm that has Upick blueberries for $1 lb. Can't beat that.... :D Not even for the water it takes to grow them. ;)

Basil, peas, beans, and tomatoes are also big time money savers. Herbs you can't find fresh in the store like sage, lemon verbena (my favorite herb of all time), pineapple or honeydue melon sage (wonderful in punches and mixed drinks, and the flowers are stunning), borage (anti depressent), wide leaf parsley, and dill are others I grow every year. This year was a bad year. We moved in March and most of these things did poorly or died with transplantation. It was really really sad. But after an entire season of seeing what the sun does, and where the good growing spots are we will purchase 6 sq yrds of mushroom compost this fall and then place that in all the growing spots and have a beautiful garden next year. It will be wonderful to have that again. Last year I had fresh flowers, and herbs and beautiful produce all summer and fall long and into winter.

I strived not only to be self sufficiant as possible, but have things that I couldn't have gotten even with the money. lol... like red sunflowers, and 3 kinds of sage, 4 kinds of basil, fresh edamame, lemon cucumbers, lovage, dahilas... things like this make the gardening not only worth it, but special. You know? I have things others DON'T because of my effort. Not just the stuff everyone else gets at the grocery.

Garden July 2004:
Front of the garden from the neighbors driveway:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/Garden%20Pictures/DCP_0018.jpg

The produce bed:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/Garden%20Pictures/DCP_0019.jpg

The year long herb bed:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/Garden%20Pictures/DCP_0023.jpg

Bean and pea teepee:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/Garden%20Pictures/DCP_0010_1.jpg

Tomatos and basil and some other annual herbs:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/Garden%20Pictures/DCP_0011.jpg

Our garden alter:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/Garden%20Pictures/DCP_0029_1.jpg

And one more... the red sunflowers:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/Garden%20Pictures/DCP_0022_1.jpg

Sorry about the crazy long post... thank you for giving me a reason to share... I miss it a lot this time of year. BUT I will have it again. ;)

Val

We get the most from our bell pepper plants. Although this year , all I've planted, regretfully , was tomatoes and bell peppers.

Last year, we had an overabundance of squash

Hey Val,

Can you help me out a little? We're in Illinois and if you can point me to a good site to help me know, when to start seedlings inside, when to plant what, where and how, that'd be great.!! I'd love to have green beans and peas, but I never knew that a "teepee" or something was needed for them to grow. Would just a fence work?? LOL

Any other insight you could give would be great

I'm in central Illinois; I found this garden calendar from the U of I extension office. Haven't used it yet because this is our first summer here and we didn't plant. http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gardencal/

Hope that helps! :)


Susan

Yeah, our tomatos are just now coming into harvest. We use Marigold plants around the tomatos as natural pesticide.

Lemon grass is supposed to ward off mosquitos...